Courtney Love Exclusive
Backstage chat at her secret comeback show
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T H E PA S T, P R E S E N T & FUTURE OF MUSIC 17 MAY 2014 | £ 2 .50
17 MAY 2014
Damon Albarn Elliott Smith Kate Bush Palma Violets
LOST C LASS I CS ▼
FO RGOTTE N GEMS
Dave Grohl on ‘The B-52’s’
Kasabian
ALBUMS UM TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE
Brandon Flowers
STAR R I N G
on ‘Louder Than Bombs’
Katy B
on ‘Skream!’
Noel Gallagher on ‘Weld’
Jarvis Cocker on ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’
on ‘Four Sail’
Alex Turner on ‘Rainmaker’
St Vincent
on ‘A Love Supreme’
N D M M O A RE NY
Pete Doherty
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“Her life was saved by rock’n’roll”
lou reed
on ‘Nia’ & ‘Thriller’
ESSENTIAL
TrAcKS
N E w M u s i ca l E x p r E s s | 1 7 M ay 2 0 1 4
4 SOUNDING OFF 8 THE WEEK 16 IN THE STUDIO Alexis Taylor 19 ANATOMY OF AN ALBUM Neutral Milk Hotel – ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’ 21 SOUNDTrAcK OF MY LIFE Jagwar Ma
THIS WEEK WE ASK…
NEW BANDS TO DIScOVEr →
New tunes, Hole songs and plenty of backstage chat about, er, TOWIE
Frank Turner, Katy B, Honor Titus, Arctic Monkeys, Wild Beasts, Billy corgan, Johnny Marr, Brody Dalle, James Dean Bradfield, Kurt Vile, Jarvis cocker, pixies, Drenge, Noel Gallagher, Kasabian, palma Violets, Siouxsie Sioux, Brandon Flowers, Pete Doherty, Dave Grohl, action Bronson, Keith richards and Quentin Tarantino
sHOULD LEgAL HigHs BE BANNED? Most definitely yes, says Bestival and Camp Festival organiser Rob Da Bank
WHOsE ALBUm is Up THERE WiTH ‘A gRAND DON’T COmE FOR FREE’? Arise Kate Tempest, a bold new voice in UK rap
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CONTRIBUTORS Jordan Hughes Photographer Jordan went to The Great Escape in Brighton to shoot our four-page Radar special. “Everyone was in good spirits, despite the torrential rain and strong wind.”
Rhian Daly assistant Reviews Editor Rhian went to Live At Leeds to hear Palma Violets play a bunch of new songs. “They sounded better than anything on ‘180’, especially the mighty ‘Matador’.”
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Jungle 37 Kate Bush 13 Kate Tempest 26 Klaxons 7 La Roux 6 Lil Wayne 7 Lone 7 Luke Haines 31 The Magic Gang 25 Menace Beach 34 Merchandise 6 Movie 6 Neon Waltz 23 Neutral Milk Hotel 19 Nicki Minaj 7 Palma Violets 32 Parquet Courts 6 Pulled Apart By Horses 6, 34 Public Access TV 23 Pure X 27 Quirke 6 Rae Morris 35 Sean Nicholas Savage 35 Shabazz Palaces 6 The So So Glos 27 Spring King 24 The Sunshine Underground 29 Thumpers 29 Tom Williams & The Boat 30 Trash Talk 42 Wolf Alice 36 The Wytches 7, 34 Yann Tiersen 30
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COVER: Ed MilEs, RiChaRd JOhnsOn, Chilli MEdia, shaMil Tanna, PaMEla liTTky
EighTEEn PagEs Of lifE-Changing lOng-PlayERs, as RECOMMEndEd by…
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101 alBUmS TO heaR BefORe yOU dIe
Dan Martin Writer Dan was at a tiny cafe in east London to see Courtney Love in fine form. “She told me about a dating site called ChristianMingle, and how she’s thought better of joining Tinder.”
Alexis Taylor 16 Allie X 6 Archie Bronson Outfit 27 Archive 30 Arthur Russell 14 Austra 7 Baby In Vain 24 Bad Breeding 25 Basement Jaxx 7 Beck 6 Big Ups 22 Bis 29 Blood Red Shoes 34 Bo Ningen 10 The Brian Jonestown Massacre 29 Cheerleader 25 Chlöe Howl 34 Chris Stroffolino 31 Conor Oberst 30 Courtney Love 8 Coves 37 Damon Albarn 37 The Districts 35 Dracula Legs 25 Dum Dum Girls 34 Eastern Hollows 30 Ekkah 6 Eugene McGuinness 7 Fat White Family 34 First Aid Kit 7 Foxes 27 Happyness 34 Jagwar Ma 21 Jaakko Eino Kalevi 24 Jane’s Addiction 13 Juliana Barwick 7
WHAT WENT DOWN AT COURTNEY’s sECRET iNsTORE gig?
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LEGAL LoWS People want to take MDMA for partying, LSD for psychedelic adventures and more. People do, and always will. Those drugs have been tested and are safe but are not available legally. The legal highs market has been a response to people wanting such drugs and has enabled them to buy substitutes legally. So, the message is clear – people want to get high but not be criminals. Why are we trying to create criminals out of people who are desperately trying to avoid criminality and just enjoy themselves? What would be wrong with a legal market for the real drugs that we actually want, with health and safety precautions and warnings in place? Unfortunately people are now taking unknown drugs on faith and without knowing the safe dosages, which can vary wildly. This may lead to overdoses and deaths. This situation is a fault of government making a complete cock-up of drugs regulation. The legal highs market has been created by bad policy and has brought about an increasingly ludicrous situation that does nothing other than to make it more and more dangerous for people who simply want to get high, and much more likely that those people will come to harm in their simple pursuit of pleasure. Jon Turner, Wiltshire
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BIRMINGHAM STILL REIGNS I thought I should inform you of the state of British live music. Not London live music, but British. Well, Birmingham, to be precise. I couldn’t help but notice only two out of nine of your live reviews last week reported from gigs outside London, with one of them not even being from this country. The Midlands music scene has not died down since the ‘King City’/ King Koisser dust settled, but has continued to grow. Jaws’ (below right) recent homecoming gig on April 20 exemplified this, but you failed to report it, among other homecoming bashes from Superfood and Peace at the end of last year. Not only were the crowd one massive bathtub of sweat for Jaws, but also during the support act from other Midlands bands. Indeed, the crowd treated the night in the usual Brummie fashion – messily, with added hysteria. I know there are current economic hardships, but please, I beg
letters@nme.com @nme
you, for Birmingham’s sake and for your own, jump on a train, dodge the ticket collector and find out what’s still putting the ‘King’ into ‘King City’. Juliette Rowsell, via email RD: Our support of Birmingham bands isn’t just limited to the reviews section, Juliette. Juice recently featured in Radar, and turn over the page in this very issue and you’ll find one of the city’s newest acts, Ekkah, there in On Repeat. Anyway, I agree with you that there is still loads of interesting music coming from the Midlands. So rest assured, just because we’re not at every hometown show going doesn’t mean we’re not paying attention.
rightly so. With the Londoners on board, this summer should be smashing.
JARVIS THE ARSE
Rhian Daly: I’m not sure how “safe” MDMA and LSD are – especially when bought on the street – but I get your point, Jon. With festivals banning the sale of legal highs, it was only a matter of time before the subject of decriminalising illegal drugs came up. While your proposition of a legal market feels a long way of, for now we can be thankful festival organisers are doing all they can to keep their punters safe – like Bestival’s Rob Da Bank, who gives his views on legal highs on page 15.
REcoRd SToRE GRouNdHoG dAy In reply to Letter Of The Week (May 3) from Steven Pritchard, regarding Record Store Day. Firstly, set the alarm clock and live Record Store Day like you mean it. No oversleeping. As for the NME response, well, there is nothing wrong with ‘cynical reissues’, to my mind. If it gives you Katastrophy Wife, as it did me, then go ‘cynical’. As for ‘clogged release schedules’, this means that I now have the Milk Music split LP heading my way ’cos it didn’t make the RSD deadline in the States. Now, scammers. They are fine, part of life, just get the better of them or pay a little extra for your passion. It is your passion after all. Remember not to fall into the collection trap of needing everything by every artist you love. If you do fall however, be ready to be disappointed or pay a little extra. So simple. Neil Porter, via email RD: All well and good being prepared to get up at ridiculous o’clock
to buy a few records, but what about those who can’t aford to blow a huge wad of cash on a two-track seven-inch just because some scammer fancies making a quick buck on eBay? Being able to indulge in the obsessive, passionate side of music fandom shouldn’t be exclusively for those with bulging wallets.
Only NME would consider Jarvis Crocker [sic] a hero for storming the stage and making an ass out of himself while disrespecting another artist. Clearly NME and Crocker have no idea how to interpret artistic expression. Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’ and his performance of it is just that: art. It is not about seeing himself as messianic. Crocker will soon be forgotten but Jackson’s gifts as an artist will be celebrated for a long time to come. Theresa Biggs, via email RD: Your spelling of ‘Cocker’ seems to have come a bit of a cropper, Theresa. And who says Jarvis’ Brit Awards bum-shaking wasn’t itself a form of artistic expression? A protest in the form of dance, albeit not a very elegant one…
JuNGLE FEVER Would love to say how much I enjoyed Stag & Dagger Festival in Glasgow on May 4. I bought a ticket as I was excited for Albert Hammond Jr, Royal Blood and Honeyblood – but two acts blew those all away. Jagwar Ma and Jungle were brilliant. They are two bands who sound chilled on record, but come alive on stage. Of all the bands I saw, these two were the only ones that had the place jumping. Michael Houston, via email RD: Yes, Michael! The rise of the mysterious Jungle continues. ‘Busy Earnin’’ looks set to be one of this year’s festival anthems and
Ne w M u sical e xpres s | 17 May 201 4
look who’s stalking I got invited to Abbey Road to hear the new Kasabian album. I met the band, and Serge loved my description of ‘48:13’: “It sounds like being abducted by aliens on ecstasy.” Tom Wells, Borehamwood REx
Wins £50 of
Answering you this week: Rhian Daly
“AMAZING. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS.” HHHHH DAILY MIRROR
20 TRACK oF THe WeeK 1. La Roux Let Me Down Gently
6. Allie X Bitch
The first single from La Roux’s second album – five years on from the first – is a masterclass in subtlety. It’s a five-and-a-half-minute cosmic slow burner-turned-disco-tinged supernova in which she pleads for a soft touch at the end of a relationship, hoping to learn from it, but her caveat demonstrates a self-assurance that most people never manage to achieve: “You’re not my life, but I want you in it”. Laura Snapes, Features Editor
Canadian singer Allie X comes on like a corrupted Mouseketeer gone wrong: a sickly-sweet and girlish voice dripping syrupy poison in your ear. On ‘Bitch’, she turns quaint domesticity into a Stepford Wiveslike power-game with blaring synths, stuck in an old-fashioned relationship where she’s marooned at home making the dinner while her beau “brings home the bacon”. Weird, warped and queasy as fuck, in the best way possible. Ben Hewitt, writer
2. Parquet Courts Black And White
7. Beck Billie Jean
The Brooklyn-based punk rockers release their third album, ‘Sunbathing Animal’, on June 2. Taken from it, this new song doesn’t quite see them return to the scratchiness of their 2012 cassette-only debut, ‘American Specialties’, but there is a slight sheen here that wasn’t present on second album ‘Light Up Gold’, exemplified by the electronic efects 90 seconds in. That’s not to say they’ve abandoned their signature sound in favour of something glossier – far from it – but they’ve somehow improved it. Andy Welch, writer
As we await the monstrosity that will inevitably be the “contemporised” new Michael Jackson album comprising ofcuts of vocals he never wanted you to hear, one of music’s most inventive figures is reminding us of better times. Prodigious musical polymath Beck has ofered his own playful rendition of one of MJ’s greatest hits for a performance on US telly show Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The highlight is a cheeky “hee hee” midway through. Jenny Stevens, Deputy News Editor
‘They Come In Gold’ is the lead single from ‘Lese Majesty’, the second album from experimental Seattle hip-hop collective Shabazz Palaces. Lead rapper Ishmael Butler conjures visceral images of sunken ships, sepulchres, ghosts and bloodencrusted dope over a stoned beat created out of treated female vocals and illuminated by a warm jazz rif. Cosmic stuf – it’s exciting to have them back. Lucy Jones, Deputy Editor, NME.COM
With an intro that sounds as if it’s about to burst into a seriously wonky version of Sam & Dave’s ‘Soul Man’ but goes for equally lopsided new-wave pop instead, Movie’s debut single is a sit-up-andlisten delight from the of. The south London trio met when they were 10 – they aren’t much older now, to be honest – and play with the taut funkiness and jerky joy of a junior Franz Ferdinand. Matthew Horton, writer
9. Merchandise No You And Me
4. Quirke Break A Mirrored Leg
You know that dreamlike feeling when you wake up, thankful to be in your own bed, with your valuables mercifully still in your pockets, and somehow, impossibly, despite the terrible things you did last night, you actually feel fine? The sunlight streams through the window and you thank God you’re alive. Well, the good news is that this is the song playing in your head. The bad news is that you have six minutes until the hangover hits. Kevin EG Perry, writer
London-based producer Josh Quirke is Young Turks’ latest signing. The lead track from his debut EP ‘Acid Beth’ is a distressing and exhilarating introduction. Alternating between eerie and atmospheric field recordings and an onslaught of hyper-fast kicks and splintered samples, its efect is like opening and closing the windows on a plane mid-flight. This is the first glimpse of a frighteningly versatile new electronic talent. Ben Homewood, writer
10. Ekkah Figure It Out
5. Pulled Apart By Horses Hot Squash
On their debut track ‘7AM’, Birmingham ladies Ekkah mined tropical sounds to accompany their up-allnight hedonism. Second time round they’re more sultry, borrowing Jessie Ware’s minimal dance-pop template and filling it in with Becky Wilson’s alluring sighs about a lover who doesn’t “have the time to figure it out for me”. But hey, that’s OK because she doesn’t “have the time to give you apologies” anyway. Cool, crisp and self-assured. Rhian Daly, Assistant Reviews Editor
Leeds’ most absurd and brilliant sweaty metallers return with this thudding behemoth of a rock song. The NIN-like industrial intro, languid but headbanging Black Sabbath rif and howling Deftones-y chorus all suggest that the muckabout scrufiness of early songs is pretty much totally eradicated. Apart from the title, Pulled Apart By Horses are now a serious rock band. JJ Dunning, writer New Mu s ical e x pre s s | 17 M ay 2014
ED MILES, PAMELA LITTKY, KATE YOUNG, STEVE GULLICK, TIMOTHY SACCENTI
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8. Shabazz Palaces They Come In Gold
3. Movie Ads
esseNtial New tracks 11. First Aid Kit Cedar Lane
16. Basement Jaxx Unicorn
When they’re not singing backup for Conor Oberst or making Patti Smith weep tears of joy, the Söderberg sisters are modestly getting on with crafting their unnervingly pretty folk pop. ‘Cedar Lane’ from third LP ‘Stay Gold’ is a shufle through the back catalogue of Sandy Denny with the Omaha Symphony’s efusive orchestration. Gorgeous. Leonie Cooper, writer
Felix Buxton and Simon Ratclife have been fusing pirate-radio vibes and chart-friendly dance since the mid-’90s. It hasn’t sounded as relevant as this for, well, let’s just say a while. Call it the Disclosure efect. You could easily mistake the skippety beats here for the work of the Lawrence brothers. That’s meant as a compliment, you understand. Chris Cottingham, writer
12. Julianna Barwick Meet You At Midnight
17. Lil Wayne Believe Me (feat. Drake)
American person Julianna Barwick has recently made a beer with the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Delaware. The booze they came up with is an IPA called Rosabi, which is also the name of an EP Barwick has made to be sold in 1,000 six-pack cases of the drink. The EP will feature sounds of the brewing process, but they’re hidden away among high-pitched choristers and deathly low strings on the heavenly ambience of ‘Meet You At Midnight’. Tom Howard, Assistant Editor
For the first time since bursting out of Louisiana 15 years ago with New Orleans crew Hot Boys, Lil Wayne finds himself with it all to prove on upcoming album ‘Tha Carter V’. New single ‘Believe Me’ claws back some credibility after 2013 misfire ‘I Am Not A Human Being II’. Featuring a guest spot from Drake, Wayne’s rhymes pivot around a melancholy keyboard loop. Whether or not it’ll prove a similar international smash, only time will tell. Al Horner, Assistant Editor, NME.COM
13. Klaxons Show Me A Miracle
18. Eugene McGuinnes Godiva
Like recent single ‘There Is No Other Time’, ‘Show Me A Miracle’ is another example of Klaxons’ renewed focus. If they lost their way with 2010’s fuggy ‘Surfing The Void’, this is them gunning (gunning, yes, not gurning) for primetime radio play with a slick track so unapologetically dance-pop it could be the new Avicii single. Perfectly listenable, but it’s got all the chaos of your local book club. Still, there’s an album to come. Greg Cochrane, Editor, NME.COM
Centered around a bass motif that pinches the first half of the ‘Paperback Writer’ rif and wonks it up a little, Eugene McGuinness’ ‘Godiva’ is neither an ode to the topless horserider or the posh chocolate brand. Instead, it’s as ’60s-indebted and unsubtly sexed-up as anything Miles Kane has been responsible for lately. The swaggering guitars and lyrics about the “chaos of elation” suggest Eugene’s feeling a bit randy, too. Lisa Wright, writer
14. Lone Aurora Northern Quarter
19. The Wytches Wire Frame Mattress
Lone is the nom de plume of Matt Cutler, whose love for Manchester’s most vibrant musical sector is hardly a secret. You’ll find him in one of the area’s clubs most weekends, and in the context of new album ‘Reality Testing’ it represents a microcosm of his colourful influences. An erratic house piano takes the lead on a track awash with warm synths and samples of children’s laugher; it’s a nostalgic glance at the golden era of Manchester’s dance scene through the eyes of one of its devotees. James Balmont, writer
Saturated by the spirit of a bloodthirsty Tarantino, the Brighton trio’s new single is a two-sided beast. The first half – all rumbling guitars and driving bass – is frontman Kristian Bell realising all his innerCobain dreams, sounding at once battle-hardened and bruised. Things change halfway through, when the band slow things right down and summon the ghost of Dick Dale – all cascading surf-guitar rifs and doomy hisses from Bell. Matt Wilkinson, New Music Editor
20. Nicki Minaj Yasss Bish!!
15. Austra Habitat
Nicki Minaj continues her quest to make us forget ‘Starships’, the sickly sweet lead single from ‘Pink Friday…’, ever happened with another hard-edged slice of rap realness. Sizzurp advocate Soulja Boy joins her on the beat, over which she namechecks Will Smith, the racism ban imposed on LA Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling and her new album ‘The Pink Print’. If it’s a continuation of her good recent form, it could restore the hiphop purists’ faith in Minaj. David Renshaw, News Reporter
Danse macabre: it’s always been the twisted philosophy underpinning Katie Stelmanis’ brooding work as Austra, and ‘Habitat’, the title track from her new EP, is no diferent. Here, love, life and death are intertwined, all brittle beats and icy glitches. As she knows, if the darkness is gathering, there’s no merit in moping around with an end-is-nigh placard – far better to greet it by cutting some morbid shapes. Ben Hewitt, writer 17 May 2 01 4 | Ne w Mu sical ex pres s
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►LISTeN To THeM ALL AT NMe.CoM/oNRePeAT NoW
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■ EditEd by dAN StUbbS
8 New Mu s ical e x pre s s | 17 M aY 2014
Lars but not least
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Metallica’s Lars Ulrich onstage in Germany in 2009
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fter much speculation and willthey-won’t-theys, Metallica have been ofcially announced as the fnal Glastonbury headliners, joining Arcade Fire, who will play on the Friday, and Kasabian, who will close the festival on the Sunday night. They are the frst metal band to headline the Pyramid Stage in the festival’s 44-year history, but drummer Lars Ulrich said the decision to play was an easy one. “We didn’t sit around and have a big conversation when the call came,” he said. “In Metallica we have a saying called a ‘no-brainer’. Headlining Glastonbury is a no-brainer. We didn’t sit around thinking about the pros and cons.”
1 7 M aY 2 01 4 | New M u sical e xp re s s
Predictably, the announcement has drawn criticism from some quarters, but Lars says they’ll keep the set simple to entice new fans. “Trust your friendly neighbourhood Metallica, we’ll put something suitable together,” he said. “It’s great that, 32 years into our career, we’re still able to knock down doors – doors we didn’t think were open to us.” Also announced for Worthy Farm are St Vincent and James Blake on the Park Stage and Haim, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Horrors on the Other Stage. The West Holts headliners have also been revealed, with MIA playing on Friday, Bryan Ferry on Saturday and Disclosure ofering a party to rival Kasabian on Sunday. ■ JENNy StEVENS
rex
Metallica revealed as the final Glastonbury headliner, becoming the first metal band to top the bill in the festival’s 44-year history
FIVE TOuRIng ESSEnTIaLS
Taigen Kawabe Bo Ningen BOOK Music theory books “I sometimes bring quite easy music theory books. I’m not a very academic person and I don’t know that much theory, so I sometimes have them although I don’t use them in the band.”
TV SERIES Death Match Wrestling
FILM Lost In Translation “We watched it on our last UK tour too, before we went back to Japan. When Savages were in Tokyo, they stayed in the hotel where it was filmed.”
gaME Fire Pro Wrestling “I don’t do that much gaming when we’re not on tour, but I can never sleep in the van so I play wrestling games. Fire Pro Wrestling is a ’90s game that I used to play in junior high school, but I’ve kept playing it even though I’ve got a PSP.”
HOME COMFORT Sage “I bring sage because we stay at random hotels everywhere and it sometimes doesn’t smell good. It’s not like they’re haunted, but I don’t want to smell something weird when I sleep. It purifies the room.”
London’s sweetheart “My hairdresser told me I had four grey hairs,” she tells the crowd between songs. “I’ve named them after the people who have given them to me… most of them were lawyers.” Last month, she spoke about her decision to launch her latest comeback on British shores: “I feel most at home in the UK and can’t wait to catch up on TOWIE and play in my second and hopefully, inevitably, my first home. I grew up half a British citizen and I just miss it.” The last time Courtney played here was in 2010. The underperforming Hole album ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ came amid an ill-advised ‘reunion’, with Courtney battling an addiction with prescription medication. Now, with her
As Courtney Love begins her solo assault on the UK with a tiny instore in east London, she reveals a Hole reunion is still on the cards
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n an unassuming little record store-cumcafé in Clapton, east London, Courtney Love is kicking off her latest UK visit with a tiny acoustic show to just 50 fans. The same number of devotees are pressed against the window of Hayden Wylds Coffee + Records to see rock’s ultimate survivor reel off a string of classics and new material, including new double A-side ‘You Know My Name’/‘Wedding Day’, ahead of a UK tour which starts this week. Ne w Mu s icAl e x pre s s | 17 MAY 201 4
DEREK BREMNER, REX, CAT STEVENS
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“I watch pro-wrestling – not WWE. Death Match is quite extreme and bloody. They play it in Japan. It makes you feel like you have to do your best at every show.”
during a smoking rendition of ‘Doll this. The Jesus Lizard did a reunion tour, OK? Parts’, and she jokes afterwards, Fucking Sunny Day Real Estate did a reunion “You know I didn’t do a good job but tour. I’m like, what? We got asked to open for that’s the charm”), but the throaty Alice In Chains. I said to my manager, ‘Layne’s roar of her vocals is more powerful dead, we can’t open for Alice In Chains!” than ever. She goofs around Following the death of frontman with covers of Pearl Jam’s Layne Staley in 2002, the band S E T L I ST ‘Jeremy’ and Leonard returned with new singer William Cohen’s ‘Take This Longing’, DuVall, enjoying two successful ►Honey and when she stands up on albums. She’s not convinced. “He’s ►Malibu the counter for ‘Northern like, ‘They had three radio hits.’ ►Pacific Coast Star’, the emotion in th What, with a ghost?!” Highway ►Dying crowd are palpable. This is Aware she could have gone the ►Doll Parts what fans can look forward same way, this survivor’s renewed ►Jeremy to from these dates: commitment to the cause is ►Wedding Day a celebration of her past, unfinching. “Everyone from Billy ►Take This Longing present and future. Idol to Ozzy Osbourne – there’s no ►Miss World As she gears up for big diference. I’m not as much of a snob ►How Dirty Girls Get Clean gigs in London, Manchester, as I used to be. We’re all in this ►Northern Star Leeds, Birmingham, together and there’s not a lot of us. Glasgow, Bristol and A rock star’s a rock star’s a rock star.” Nottingham this week, she talks So as we await a Hole victory lap, and even excitedly about her new music and a new album, we’re reminded of another recent the very real possibility of a Hole Facebook post: “Don’t take on more than you reunion next year. After this tour, can handle, know your limitations, that’s all, or it’s back into the studio with Eric you’ll fall into a pile of hubris. And for god’s Erlandson and Melissa Auf der Maur sake laugh at yourself.” ■ DAN MARTIN to see if the magic is still there. “The problem is just that the Hole camp are like, ‘Can you get this [solo campaign] over with?’ And A solo UK tour I’m like, ‘OK, we don’t Likelihood of happening: 95% – the insurance have to worry about anything, premiums would be festivals, etc, if we do this… we have through the roof if to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s. But she cancelled. Melissa’ll kill me if I say too much.” This solo stopgap, then, seems band back together designed to ramp up interest in The 2015 Hole without it, and Brand Courtney ahead of next year’s reunion tour would like “two more hits”. festivals and, you suspect, increase Likelihood of happening: But see above. 70% – the line is “if it’s not her bargaining power within the magical, we won’t do it”, band. And she’s even profering the but the money on the idea of a Coachella appearance, if A move to the UK table after this year’s she can convince the powers that be. Likelihood of happening: studio sessions would 40% – she’s been saying “I didn’t make up my mind [to do be hard to resist. she’d do that for years. the reunion] until it was too late for festival season. And Coachella is a tough nut to crack, because A new Hole album A romantic duet [founder] Paul Tollett doesn’t wanna Likelihood of happening: with Dave Grohl 50% – she says she has put on bands he, quote, ‘grew up Likelihood of happening: no intention of getting the Oh, don’t be ridiculous. with’. But we’re the last band to do
whaT’S nExT?
afairs in order, hatchets with former Nirvana members buried and a proper Hole reunion a real possibility, she’s precursing that with this brief solo onslaught. “Little dented heart girl coming to London with her little dented heart,” she warned on Facebook. “Watch out!” It’s a measure of her togetherness that this even happens. Amid the nostalgia surrounding the 20th anniversary of Kurt’s death, it’s clear that she means business about the future. “These are people that know the lyrics to everything,” she tells NME after the set, where she was accompanied by former Larrikin Love guitarist Micko Larkin (pictured right). “That’s why I did [‘Nobody’s Daughter’ album track] ‘How Dirty Girls Get Clean’, because I’m never gonna play that at Shepherd’s Bush Empire next week.” Guitar playing is out (her arms give out
“An insAne And chAllenging, Ambitious A n d e x c e p t i o n A l w o r k o f A rt ” n m e
n e w Al bum ou t n ow www.mute.com
o n t o u r m AY & J u n e 2 0 1 4 1 7 M AY 2 01 4 | Ne w M u s icA l e xpre s s
www.younggodrecords.com
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Courtney Love at Hayden Wylds, east London, May 3
Elliott Smith film unearths new songs Kickstarter-funded documentary on the late singer-songwriter premieres in Los Angeles
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“It’S A SEnSItIvE ISSuE to tAlk About your dEAd frIEnd” kevin Moyer,
EllIott SMItH’S poStHuMouS rElEASES
New Mu s ical e x pre s s | 17 M ay 2014
ROSS HARRIS, GETTY
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hen US singer-songwriter Elliott Smith died in 2003, aged just 34, he left behind not only a beautiful and introspective body of work Moyer had the advantage of having worked that stretched over fve albums and included on releasing a posthumous Smith song before, the Oscar-nominated ‘Miss Misery’, but also when he included ‘The Real Estate’ on charity a host of unreleased demos and song ideas. compilation ‘Live From Nowhere Near You’, so His frst posthumous record, ‘From A he already knew Smith’s archives inside out. co-director Basement On The Hill’, was released in 2004. “I’m one of the few people who have been able Since then, several books have attempted to to look into both the Universal and Kill Rock Moyer believes that there is plenty of piece together his life, including photographer Stars vaults,” he explains. “Elliott’s masters are archive Smith material that is of a high Autumn de Wilde’s 2007 tome Elliott Smith split between the two labels. It was fun to be enough quality to be released, although and 2013’s Torment Saint: The Life Of Elliott able to get in there and listen to songs and try whether that will tie into this flm remains to Smith by William Todd Schultz. to get some of that music that had never been be seen. “There’s everything from demos to But given the violent and untimely nature heard out there and into the fans’ ears.” instrumentals to stuf that was never fnished of Smith’s death – stabbed twice in the chest The flm uses around 35 diferent Smith to full-on studio tracks that were never in an apparent suicide – those closest to the tracks, of which Moyer says “15 to 20” haven’t released,” he says. “[Releasing a soundtrack singer understandably clammed up, and much been heard before. There’ll be some surprises. album] is a conversation we’re going to have. of Smith’s remarkable story was left untold. “We have stuf from all ages of his life, right I would love to do that but there are so many Now a new Kickstarter-funded from when he was in Texas as a young kid,” obstacles. We don’t know if that’s realistic yet.” documentary, Heaven Adores You, directed by he says. “There’s one track he did with Neil What isn’t in doubt is the ability of Smith’s Nickolas Rossi in collaboration with Kevin Gust of his band Heatmiser that is a jazzy music to live on. “The biggest part of his Moyer, one of Smith’s old schoolfriends, is set instrumental. When people hear it they’re music is the connection it makes,” says Moyer. to tell that tale. It also represents a rare chance going to have no idea that it’s Elliott. They’re “Somehow when you listen to his music he just to hear some unreleased material that has lain going to think it’s a piece of score music. It connects with your heart and with your brain.” in record company vaults for the last decade. sounds like it should be in a cofee shop.” ■ Kevin eG perry Speaking before the flm’s premiere in Los Angeles, Moyer, who also coordinated the music for the flm, says his frst task was to from A basement from A basement between 1994 and 1997 during it on a charity compilation he approach Smith’s friends and on the Hill 2004 on the Hill II 2005 the sessions for 1995’s ‘elliott was working on. Smith’ and 1997’s ‘either/Or’. family. “It was the frst time Smith had almost A bootleg collection of 22 tracks leaked that a lot of these people finished work on his ‘the record’, ‘dogs’ online, which included spoke, because it’s such sixth studio album ‘the real Estate’ on and ‘burn (Aah offcuts from the last record but a sensitive issue,” he says. at the time of his death, so ‘live from nowhere fuck)’ with uul 2014 also much earlier recordings. “So many eforts have felt producer rob Schnapf and Musician Mike near you’ 2011 exploitative or like they were Smith’s former girlfriend Doughty, as UUL, While working being done in the wrong way. Joanna Bolme were brought released three through Smith’s new Moon 2007 extensive archives, Most of us just shut down in by his estate to oversee electronic dance tracks in An official collection schoolfriend Kevin Moyer and didn’t talk to the media. the final mixing ahead of 2014 that featured previously of previously came across this previously unreleased material, It’s a sensitive issue to talk its release a year after unheard Smith vocals unreleased track and included containing 24 songs recorded about your dead friend.” Smith died. recorded in the late ’90s.
kate bush shows promise surprises Will the elusive singer’s comeback tour finally bring ‘The ninth Wave’ to life?
dave navarro
A
Jane’s Addiction guitarist
Kate Bush hasn’t played live for 35 years
– her frst since 1979’s boundary-pushing Tour Of Life. And while details of the rehearsals are being kept under wraps, her guitarist David Rhodes tells NME: “[Kate]’s charming, funny and sings beautifully. Sadly, that’s probably the extent of what I can divulge at the moment.” It’s also expected that the notoriously secretive artist will incorporate some of the piano-heavy sound of her last studio album, 2011’s ‘50 Words For Snow’, into the concert. But this seems Onstage like the most conventional part in 1979 of Before The Dawn, which will be more ‘theatre performance’ than standard gig, considering the involvement of seasonal West End talent such as former Royal Shakespeare Company artistic director Adrian Noble and singers like Jacqui Dubois (Rent, Fame) and Sandra Marvin (Chicago, The Lion King). “It’s her statement that she wants to come back to the stage,” one insider tells us. “It’ll be a Kate Bush show, but it’ll be theatrical and tell a story.” ►The NME feature on Kate Bush in our April 12 issue owes a huge debt of gratitude to Under The Ivy: The Life & Music Of Kate Bush by Graeme Thomson. Featuring over 70 new interviews with the people who know her best, it’s the ultimate insight into Kate Bush’s life and career. The book is available now from Amazon and all good booksellers.
1 7 M ay 20 14 | Ne w M u s ica l e xpre s s
you’re playing debut album ‘nothing’s Shocking’ in full this year. “Yeah, we’ve never done it before, even when it was released [in 1988]. Stephen Perkins, Chris Chaney and I have done it in our warmup area backstage and it sounds amazing.” How do you feel about the record now? “I love some of the record, and I don’t love other parts. It’s a natural relationship. In some ways we were a better band then, but in others, we’re better now. It’s reckless abandon versus experience.” How will you prepare? “I’m going to try to unlearn a lot of things I’ve picked up since then. Being better on your instrument isn’t always a good thing.” Are you going to be playing other songs? “Yeah, there’ll be some extras, of course. You can expect to hear some tracks from ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ for sure. We don’t really rehearse that much, a week before the first show in May.” Are you working on new material? “No, we’re just focusing on these shows. We’re having a good time, not promoting anything new. When we put out a new record two years ago, it was great to tour, but endless press, interviews and photoshoots are tiring – the darker side of the music industry. I call it begging.” ■ AnDy WeLch
13
s top secret rehearsals get underway for Kate Bush’s frst live shows for 35 years in London later this summer, speculation about what fans can expect from this rare spectacle is running high. But if the publicity shots for the tour, titled Before The Dawn, tell fans anything, it’s that it’s likely to be a visual realisation of the second side of her classic ‘Hounds Of Love’ album from 1985. Entitled ‘The Ninth Wave’, the suite of songs tells a deftly crafted story about a woman who had been washed over the side of a ship and left alone in the water, waiting for rescue. Speaking in 1992 about conceiving ‘The Ninth Wave’, the singer, who drew great inspiration from the flms of Stanley Kubrick and Powell and Pressburger, told Radio 1: “[To me] ‘The Ninth Wave’ was a flm, that’s how I thought of it.” An actual flm version of the suite never came to pass, but the concept clearly stayed in her imagination and it is expected to play a key part in the live shows
l a i c e Sp S ’ r o t c e l l co n o i t i d e ine l n O Order t a n Ow /
m o c . e nm s to r e
l e tO b a l i at ava d a O l d Ow n
/ m o c . nme l a t i g i d n o i t i d -e
m e frO n sa l O e u is s * b lu r
a p r il
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shut down to talk about this subject, hopefully they’ll realise that it really is a serious issue. Drugs and festivals do go hand in hand and there’s no point in pretending it doesn’t happen, or preaching about it. I’m a DJ and club promoter in the dance music scene and I know that it happens and will continue to happen. My message is to consider legal highs in the same way as illegal ones and to think twice before buying or taking them. The point is that no-one knows what is in legal highs, and that can have fatal consequences. It’s Russian roulette. You can go and buy something on the high street for a fver and not know whether it’s bath salts, fertiliser or some kind of legal high. You just don’t know. We’d like to see the Government lead the charge on fnding legislation to deal with that. All festivals that are part of the Association Of Independent Festivals have pledged not to have any stalls selling legal highs at their events. Of course, there are lots of festivals and parties around the world that do still sell them. It’s a big battle to be undertaken. At my festivals – Bestival and Camp Bestival – we’ve had a ban in place for a number of years, even before the legal-high related death. It’s something we were already aware of and very worried about even before it was so well publicised. Most of the major promoters support a ban too – and I’d like to think that the majority of UK festivals will not be selling legal highs in 2014. I don’t want to sound like Big Brother. Stepping out into the road, smoking cigarettes, drinking beer: all these things can be dangerous. The thing is that with cigarettes we know what the dangers are; with a beer you know what’ll happen when you drink too many; but with a legal high we just have no idea. You might get high, you might die. It’s a complete lottery. There are other ways to enjoy yourself at a festival. ▪
We neeD to stoP PlaYinG RUssian RoUlette With leGal hiGhs BY Rob Da bank
as told to kevin eg perry photos: dan dennison, richard johnson
As festival season kicks of, the Bestival organiser says we need tougher action on banning so-called legal drugs
►For more opinion and debate, head to NME.COM/blogs
#29
arthur Russell love is overtaking Me
(2008)
Chosen by Jack Steadman, Bombay Bicycle Club “Arthur Russell is more well known for his experimental disco output, but I recently discovered this compilation of previously unheard singer-songwriter material that was recorded between 1974 and 1990, restored by Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear and released a few years ago. Behind all the avant-garde cello and dance music was a man who had an ear for a great melody. I think that’s what makes his music so timeless and I’m always striving to create something similar – something experimental and accessible at the same time.” 1 7 may 2014 | Ne w m u s ical e x pre s s
► ►R e l e a s e Dat e
october 28, 2008 ►l a be l rough trade ►be st t R ac ks love is overtaking Me, i couldn’t say it to your Face ►W h e R e to f i n D i t available in all good record shops ►l ist e n o n li n e on spotify
15
Many major UK festivals, including Glastonbury (right), have now banned ‘legal highs’ from being sold on site
Alexis Taylor in his north London home recording studio
Alexis taylor
The Hot Chip man swaps beats for ballads on his second solo album, inspired by Neil Young and Prince 16
A
lexis Taylor looks almost comically out of place. It’s 11am on a Monday in a Wetherspoon’s pub in Wood Green, north London. Grey-haired, red-faced men in scrufy coats sit one to a table coughing into their frst pint of the day. In a corner at the back sits the Hot Chip frontman: clean-cut, healthy and thoughtful. “There isn’t really anywhere else to get a cup of tea round here,” he apologises, glancing sideways at a man heading to the bar for pint number two. Taylor is the perennial outsider. His band Hot Chip are one of the UK’s most successful electronic acts, but they remain apart from the mainstream, always just a little bit quirkier than their peers. The same is true of Taylor’s second solo album, ‘Await Barbarians’, the follow-up to 2008’s ‘Rubbed Out’. It’s a collection of ballads, sparse chords and minimal drum patterns that are a world away from both the charts and the idiosyncratic dance music Hot Chip are known for. “There are always a few ballads on a Hot Chip record,” counters Taylor. “I like making dance-oriented music with Hot Chip, but that’s what I do
“I lIke mAkIng dAnceorIented musIc wIth hot chIp, so why do It on my own As well?” AlexIs tAylor
pattering electronic drums. “That’s one of my with them so why do it on my own as well? favourite tracks,” says Taylor. “It only took Ballads are the kind of music I write the most about three minutes easily. I like music that has a deep to write. It’s about my emotional impact. It suits me and ► friendship with Joe my character, which is refective.” [Goddard, fellow Hot Musically, Taylor thinks the twin ►tItle Await Barbarians Chip frontman]. I was infuences on ‘Await Barbarians’ are ►releAse dAte June 9 thinking, ‘I hope I’m Neil Young and 1980s Prince. “I was ►lAbel Domino not destroying my listening to [Young’s 1978 album] ►pr oducer Alexis Taylor songwriting relationship ‘Comes A Time’ while making this ►re corded Taylor’s home with him.’” The answer record,” says Taylor. “There’s a track studio, north London is no, it turns out: called ‘Lotta Love’, which is a pretty ►trAcks Lazy Bones, From Hot Chip are currently transparent infuence on my song The Halfway Line, Without working on album ‘Without A Crutch’. I wanted to make A Crutch (2), Immune System, number six, with something with the same warmth Dolly And Porter, Closer To a 2015 release in mind. and easiness.” Taylor is something of The Elderly, Elvis Has Left Taylor’s ambition a Prince obsessive, citing unreleased The Building, Piano Ducks, for ‘Await Barbarians’, bootleg favourites such as ‘Crystal New Hours, Where Would I Be?, meanwhile, is a modest Ball’, ‘There’s Others Here With Us’ Am I Not A Soldier?, Without one. He just wants it and ‘Old Friends 4 Sale’. “Those A Crutch (1) to do better than its songs are so sparse and not as ►AlexIs tAylor sAys “It’s predecessor, ‘Rubbed mainstream as the stuf he released,” slower and quieter than Hot Out’, which shouldn’t he explains. “If the melodies on the Chip, and there’s no attempt be hard seeing as he album are inspired by Neil Young, to make people dance.” hamstrung that album’s I’ve tried to take some of the oddness release by putting it out in the production from Prince.” on a tiny label with no digital release at all. While making ‘Await Barbarians’, there “Yes, I feel like I shot myself in the foot slightly was a point when Taylor worried whether there,” he says, laughing. “I was incredibly making another solo record might have proud of it, but no-one listened to it. That’s a negative impact on Hot Chip – so much so why I’ve done things diferently this time.” that he wrote a song about it. The result, ‘Am Maybe he doesn’t want to be an outsider I Not A Soldier?’, is a gorgeously understated after all. ■ CHRIS COTTINGHAM hush of barely-there guitar strums and Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s | 17 May 20 1 4
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“IT’S A bLURRy, CRAzy DREAM” Jeff Mangum
Based on a vintage postcard, Mangum asked artist Chris Bilheimer to replace the face of the woman with a potato. The resulting image tiptoes a thin line between cheery nostalgia and something much eerier.
FiVE FacTs
1
THIS WEEK...
Neutral Milk Hotel: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
WORDS: AL HORNER PHOTO: GETTy
As the band’s reunion tour hits the UK this week, we revisit their cult classic second album
THE BacKGrOUnD In late 1996, shortly after the release of their debut album ‘On Avery Island’, Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jef Mangum began to have recurring dreams about Anne Frank. “I’d have the ability to move through time and space freely and save her,” he told Puncture magazine. This became the inspiration for an album that came to define the phrase ‘cult classic’. Influenced by The Beatles, Syd Barrett and fellow members of his Athens, Georgia anti-folk collective Elephant 6, the record was a word-of-mouth sleeper success, but by 1999 Mangum had disappeared, having reportedly sufered a nervous breakdown.
High-school photos of what is thought to be Mangum’s sister, Caroline Mangum, showed an uncanny resemblance to Anne Frank, sparking one of the most imaginative conspiracy theories in music history: that the songwriter had succeeded in his quest to time-travel to 1940s Frankfurt and save her. Mangum wrote the album in what he describes as a “haunted closet” in his Louisiana home, to replicate the conditions of the attic where Frank hid from the Nazis. The song ‘Oh Comely’ was recorded in just one take. you can hear producer and bandmate, Apples In Stereo’s Robert Schneider, shout “holy shit!” at the end of the track in astonishment. Signed to Carolina indie imprint Merge, the record was expected to sell 5,500 copies on CD and 1,600 copies on vinyl, according to memos from the label. Instead, sales have continued to grow – in 2008 it was one of best-selling vinyl records worldwide. Writing the album deeply afected Mangum’s mental health. According to then-girlfriend Laura Carter, he became a recluse, stockpiling supplies of rice for “when the y2K bug hits”.
2 3
4
5
Mangum often spoke of feeling possessed by Anne Frank’s spirit while singing about her.
Aeroplane…’ is the sound of one man’s crumbling psyche. Nevertheless, songs such as ‘King of Carrot Flowers’ are powerfully life-afirming. Mangum’s disappearance from public view just as critics and music fans began to embrace his talents only sharpened the album’s aura of intrigue.
FaMOUs Fan
“And your mom would stick a fork right into daddy’s shoulder/And your dad would throw the garbage all across the floor” ‘King Of Carrot Flowers Pt One’
“A high-water mark in music… Jef Mangum’s voice on that record was a portal through which the animal agony and maniac joy of the universal human spirit found amplification.” Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal, 2008
A vivid imagining of the family tensions in the Franks’ attic refuge.
in THEir OWn WOrDs
“We will take off our clothes/And they’ll be placing fingers through the notches in your spine” – ‘Two-Headed Boy’ ‘Two Headed Boy’ depicts the awkwardness of teenage sex with heartwarming tenderness.
WHaT WE saiD THEn “Pathos saves Neutral Milk Hotel from being a complete oddity… an odd and convoluted musical journey worth embarking on.” Dele Fadele, NME, 23 May 1998
WHaT WE say nOW A punk-folk curio that’s only bettered with age, ‘In The
A lot of the songs on ‘Aeroplane’ really freaked me out, and it took other people to make me be comfortable with them. The world [on that record] is this incredibly blurry, crazy dream that I’m just sort of stumbling through.” – Jef Mangum, Puncture, 1997
THE aFTErMaTH Mangum turned down support slots with REM after the album’s release. He then all but disappeared for 12 years, releasing a collection of Bulgarian folk music under a pseudonym and hosting a local radio show under an alias. In 2010, he reappeared suddenly, playing sporadic shows before announcing a full Neutral Milk Hotel reunion in 2012.
► ►R E C O R D E D
July–September 1997 ►R E L E A S E DAT E May 25, 1998 33.02 ►P R O D U C E R Robert Schneider ►ST U D I O Pet Sounds Studio, Denver, Colorado ►H I G H E ST U K C H A RT P OS I T I O N n/a ►WO R L DW I D E SA L E S 300,000 (estimated) ►S I N G L E Holland, 1945 ►T R AC K L I ST I N G ►1. The King Of Carrot Flowers Pt One ►2. The King Of Carrot Flowers Pts Two And Three ►3. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea ►4. Two-Headed Boy ►5. The Fool ►6. Holland, 1945 ►7. Communist Daughter ►8. Oh Comely ► 9. Ghost ►10. * ►11. Two-Headed Boy Pt Two ►L E N GT H
17 may 2 01 4 | Ne w m u sica l e xpres s
19
◄ sTOry BEHinD THE slEEVE
lyric analysis “Anna’s ghost all around/Hear her voice as it’s rolling and ringing through me” - ‘In The Aeroplane Over The Sea’
30%
The year-on-year sales increase recorded by record store day in 2014.
5 seconds
lenth of time a quarter of all tracks on spotify are listened to before being skipped, according to new research.
£550k
THE NUMBERS
$1 million Amount Bob dylan’s handwritten lyrics for ‘like A rolling stone’ are expected to fetch at auction next month.
Money given to 14 acts, including Bo ningen and Metronomy, by Trade Minister lord livingston as part of the government’s Music export Growth scheme.
BIG MOUTH
“If we’re verbing, I think you meant ‘Bill Clinton’d all on my gown’, not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d’.”
THE BIG QUESTION
IS IT RIGHT THAT INTERvIEWS WITH DIzzEE RAScAL ARE TO BE INcLUDED ON AN A-LEvEL ENGLISH SYLLABUS? Courtney Barnett “People should be open to looking at diferent things. ‘Fix Up, Look Sharp’ is awesome, but they shouldn’t omit classics in the place of it.” JJ Dunning NME Writer “It’s a backlash against Michael Gove’s attempts to plunge the British education system back into the dark ages. Syllabus? All aboard the silly bus, more like.”
20
Megan Downing NME reader “I think it’s great. Including relevant sources such as lyrics, Twitter feeds and Newsnight interviews onto the reading lists will bring an archaic course up to date.”
Former us president Bill Clinton’s famous mistress MONICA LEWINSkY corrects BEYONCé on the line, “He Monica Lewinsky’d all on my gown” from her song ‘Partition’.
GOOD WEEK ←→ BAD WEEK
WHO THE FUcK IS…
Eminem
Lily Allen
Marshall Mathers will become the first rapper to headline Wembley stadium on July 11. he promised an “explosive” performance and showed a perceptive eye for big venues, saying, “I know Wembley’s huge.”
The singer was admitted to hospital with possible food poisoning last week, an ailment she blamed on TV host Alan Carr. she joked that the Bombay mix she’d eaten on his show earlier that night was responsible.
Mark Ryden? The painter behind a new concept album on which nick Cave, katy Perry, Metallica’s kirk hammett and Tyler, The Creator all cover the same song. Which song is it? er, 19th century standard ‘daisy Bell (Bicycle Built For Two)’.
How do we get hold of it? It’s being released in conjunction with ryden’s new show The Gay Nineties, which just opened in lA. only 999 red vinyl copies are available, at the show and on ryden’s website. Proceeds go to little kids rock, which supports musical education in disadvantaged schools.
AND FINALLY
Sweet fantasy
I got Wu babe
Mariah Carey has called her new album ‘I Am Mariah, The Elusive Chanteuse’. It was announced in an interview with a major international publication. How elusive.
Cher has recorded vocals for the one-of album the Wu-Tang Clan are hoping to sell at auction for $5m. No word yet on whether that makes it more or less valuable.
Horrorshow Pete Doherty has been cast in new horror movie The Second Coming, inspired by WB Yeats’ classic modernist poem of the same name. A spooky trailer for the flm can be seen online now.
►Find these stories and more on NME.COM New M u s icaL e x pre s s | 17 M ay 2014
NEW
01
The Horrors Luminous xL
on their fourth record, The horrors let down their guard and show a side to themselves that’s lyrically less aloof. Fifteen months in the making, ‘luminous’ is their most sublime efort yet, taking in pyramid synths, detroit techno and My Bloody Valentine influences. NEW 2 ▼ 3 ▲ 4 ▼ 5 NEW 6 NEW 7 ▼ 8 NEW 9 ▼ 10 NEW 11 ▼ 12 NEW 13 NEW 14 NEW 15 NEW 16 NEW 17 ▼ 18 ■ 19 NEW 20 ▼ 21 NEW 22 ▼ 23 ▲ 24 ▲ 25 ▼ 26 ▼ 27 ▼ 28 ▲ 29 ▼ 30 ▼ 31 ▼ 32 ▼ 33 ▼ 34 NEW 35 NEW 36 ▼ 37 ▼ 38 NEW 39 NEW 40
American Interior Gruff Rhys TurnsTIle Indie Cindy Pixies PIxIes MusIC A Perfect Contradiction Paloma Faith rCA Caustic love Paolo Nutini ATlAnTIC nikki nack Tune-Yards 4Ad I never learn Lykke Li ATlAnTIC everyday robots Damon Albarn PArloPhone someday World Eno & Hyde WArP Going Back home Wilko Johnson/Roger Daltrey Chess liquid spirit Gregory Porter Blue noTe demolicious Green Day WArner Bros Magic Mountain Black Stone Cherry roAdrunner Fair Warning Rails IslAnd hooray For love Curtis Stigers ConCord supernova Ray LaMontagne rCA sheezus Lily Allen PArloPhone The Cautionary Tales of Mark oliver Eels e Works love In The Future John Legend ColuMBIA seven dials Roddy Frame Aed The Take off And landing of everything Elbow FICTIon natalie Merchant Natalie Merchant nonesuCh Tribal Imelda May deCCA love letters Metronomy BeCAuse MusIC do To The Beast The Afghan Whigs suB PoP AM Arctic Monkeys doMIno If You Wait London Grammar MeTAl & dusT out Among The stars Johnny Cash ColuMBIA letter home Neil Young ThIrd MAn Born To die Lana Del Rey PolYdor Morning Phase Beck eMI It’s Album Time Todd Terje olsen lost In The dream The War On Drugs seCreTlY CAnAdIAn nightclubbing Grace Jones IslAnd since I saw You last Gary Barlow PolYdor so long see You Tomorrow Bombay Bicycle Club IslAnd save rock And roll Fall Out Boy deF JAM The dark side of The Moon Pink Floyd rhIno kind of Blue Miles Davis noT noW MusIC shangri la Jake Bugg eMI
The Official Charts Company compiles the Official Record Store Chart from sales through 100 of the UK’s best independent record shops, from Sunday to Saturday.
THIS WEEK
TOP SOUND OF THE KNOWLEDGE SHOPS MARLBOROUGH FOUNDED 1995 WHY IT’S GREAT They’ve hosted performances by Ash and seth lakeman, among others, during their regular instores. TOP SELLER LAST WEEK Pixies – ‘Indie Cindy’ THEY SAY “[We have] a vintage indie feel, with a huge range of titles spanning all genres.”
neWsdesk CoMPIled BY dAVId renshAW PhoTos: deAn ChAlkleY, GeTTY, Jenn FIVe, rIChArd Johnson
THE NUMBERS
TOP 40 ALBUMS MAY 1, 2014
Salt-N-Pepa Vanilla Ice
The firsT album i ever boughT ‘The Best Of Sly And The Family Stone’ – Sly And The Family Stone
Jono Ma
AS TOLD TO LISA WrIGHT PHOTOS: MATT rICJHArDSON, GeTTY
Jagwar Ma frontman
The firsT song i remember hearing ‘The Boy In The Bubble’ – Paul Simon “It’s the first song on the album ‘Graceland’. I would have been on a car trip with my brother in the back of this rusty, brown Mazda going to the north of New South Wales to see my grandparents. The landscape in Australia is quite flat and open and that song works well with it – it has that same ominous, immense quality.”
The firsT song i fell in love wiTh ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ – Traditional
James Brown
“There was this lady who lived down the road from us as kids who was a babysitter and music teacher. Before I was old enough to play an instrument, I’d go there and she’d play ‘Teddy Bear’s Picnic’ on the piano and get me to run around the house and dance. I fell in love with the idea of dancing to music at a very early
age. It taught me to listen to music, which I think I’m better at than playing it.”
The song ThaT made me wanT To be in a band ‘Lithium’ – Nirvana “I had ‘Nevermind’ and my brother taught me how to play a barre chord, so I worked out the power chords of the whole of ‘Nevermind’, showed my
“I’d gotten into Nirvana and when Kurt died there was a lot of press about the 27 Club, this group of musicians who all died age 27. I remember reading about Hendrix and via that I watched the Woodstock film. There’s a moment where Sly And The Family Stone play ‘Dance To The Music’, this crazy, explosive rock-soul track. I was completely fascinated by this guy and found the ‘Best Of’ on sale for $10 and spent all my pocket money on it.”
The song i do aT karaoke ‘Ice Ice Baby’ – Vanilla Ice “I don’t like karaoke, but when I have to do it I do
“I can play nIrvana. let’s start a band!” friends and said, ‘Look, I can play every Nirvana song ever written. Let’s start a band.’ ‘Lithium’ was the main one – it had that loud and soft thing. It’s a dynamic that everyone can respond to.”
The song i can no longer lisTen To ‘Push It’ – Salt-N-Pepa “Where I grew up in Sydney, there are loads of trashy bars and there’d always be some
Vanilla Ice. Mainly because you don’t have to sing and you can just make up the words. I don’t have many good karaoke memories, but I remember doing it the first time I went to Tokyo, and obviously it blew the roof of. The thing is, when you’re doing karaoke, everyone’s so drunk you can basically piss into a cup with a microphone and everyone would have a good time.”
1 7 m ay 2 01 4 | Ne w mu s ical ex pr es s
The song i can’T geT ouT of my head ‘Tarzan Boy’ – Baltimora “It’s in the film Beverly Hills Ninja and it’s become this band muse track. [My bandmates] Gab and Jack sing it to rev themselves up, and it’s a total earworm. It’s got this thing that sounds like a South American soccer chant as a chorus, so it’s easy to sing. It’s had over 25 million plays on YouTube.”
The song i wish i’d wriTTen ‘Cold Sweat’ – James Brown “‘Tarzan Boy’ by Baltimora because it’s had over 25 million views on YouTube… No, seriously though, ‘Cold Sweat’ by James Brown. Why? It doesn’t need explanation, it’s just perfect.”
The song ThaT reminds me of ausTralia ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ – Peter Allen “It’s all pretty literal – it’s in the title. It’s from the early ’80s but it’s one of those songs that’s become an iconic Australian classic. I haven’t heard it in about 10 years and I never listen to it through choice, but if I were to hear it, it would bring back those memories.”
The song i wanT played aT my funeral ‘Voodoo Ray’ – A Guy Called Gerald “I’ve had this discussion with close friends before and told them to make sure this gets played at my funeral. It’s just so joyous, but it also has that slightly twisted, bittersweet thing to it. Ultimately though, it’s pure joy, and my funeral will be so gloomy, you want to have a bit of hope.”
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dickhead DJ playing the Top 40. I used to think it was an amazing track, but for about five consecutive years of my life, wherever I went I’d hear it. Now I just associate it with sleazy, drunk Aussies. It’s not the track itself– it’s the people that ruined it!”
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Big Ups The NYC brats reveal their soft side while ripping up The Great Escape
bombarded by technology, while ‘Atheist Self-Help’ tackles religion. It’s a pummelling listen that’s got them out on the road for much of 2014 – a schedule that, two months ago, got them fired from their day jobs. “We were putting a lot of time into the band!” at sheltering from the gale that’s blowing says drummer Brendan Finn with a smirk. up and down Brighton’s seafront, New Later, as the band take to the stage at Audio, York post-hardcore group Big Ups look ▼ they look utterly rejuvenated. What follows impressively weary for just the first ON is a devastating set of cuts from ‘Eighteen day of The Great Escape. N M E . C O M / Hours…’ alongside a batch of new material, “We stayed up really late last night watching N E W M U S I C with Galarraga jerking around stage and into Saving Private Ryan,” offers frontman Joe N OW the headbanging audience as his bandmates ►Read, listen Galarraga by way of an explanation. “It was rip through the songs with a searing intensity. to and check our tour manager’s birthday and he really The gig ends with the frontman in heroic mood: out galleries of wanted to watch it.” yanking a striplight straight off the ceiling as Radar’s full festival he’s delivered back to the stage triumphantly. It might not be the most rock’n’roll reason coverage for the four bandmates to be slouched on a sofa At one point, he attempts to quieten everyone sipping tea, but the rest of Big Ups’ existence is down by asking them to give the new tracks more than enough to compensate. Their debut album a thumbs up or down. Instead, they respond by joyfully ‘Eighteen Hours Of Static’, released earlier this year kicking off, lifting him over their heads as if he’s their and recorded flat out in just 72 hours, is wall-to-wall new messiah. “There’s some things that will sound full-throttle punk that’s as blistering as Metz’s sonic familiar and some things that will sound different,” assaults and tackles personal, political and societal he tells his new disciples, prompting yet more cheers. issues. Album highlight ‘TMI’ observes being We’ll take that as a massive nod of approval. ■ RhiaN DalY
ANDY FORD, JENN FIVE
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New Mu s icAl e x pre s s | 17 M AY 2014
► ►Ba S E d
New York Metz, Fugazi ►h E a r T h E M Debut album ‘Eighteen Hours Of Static’ is out now ►S O CIa L @wearebigups ►S E E T h E M LI vE London Sebright Arms (May 21) ►BELIEvE IT Or NOT One of the first songs Big Ups ever wrote was about high fives, the imaginatively titled ‘Hi 5’ ►F O r Fa NS O F
►LISTEN NOW NME.COM/ NEWMUSIC
public access Tv
2 their eighth and ninth gigs together. That may be because they’ve all spent time in the indie trenches playing for the likes of Be Your Own Pet and Eleanor Friedberger. “The worst trench I’ve ever been in was touring with The Lemonheads when I was 18,” says guitarist Xan Aird. “I learned some dark, evil things.” They struck out on their own after bonding over a shared love of Elvis Costello, Iggy Pop and Roxy Music, and regular trips to record in
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Nashville have resulted in the first of two EPs due in the coming months. In fact, they’re already well into recording their debut album. They may only be a handful of shows in, but they’re a band on a mission. Just don’t mention The Strokes. KP
►Ba S E d
New York Elvis Costello, David Bowie ►h E a r T h E M soundcloud.com/publicaccesstv ►S O C I a L @public_accesstv ►BELIEvE IT Or NOT At a recent gig in Coventry, the band ended up sharing a dressing room with the Chippendales, who were being ‘auctioned off’ in another part of the venue. “Women were bidding to ‘spend the night’ with these dudes,” says Aird. “The highest bid was £18” ►F O r Fa N S O F
Neon Waltz
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Caithness Echo & The Bunnymen, The Walkmen ►h E a r T h E M soundcloud.com/neonwaltz ►S O C I a L @neonwaltz ►S E E T h E M L I v E Glasgow King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut (May 24) ►BELIEvE IT Or NOT When NME first featured Neon Waltz, the issue totally sold out in their hometown. “My mum bought two,” Jordan says
►F O r Fa N S O F
Radar first meets Neon Waltz in their Dome Studio dressing room, following the biggest show they’ve ever played – until their even more packed-out second slot later that evening, that is. It’s immediately apparent how tight the six-piece from Caithness, Scotland – “as far north as you can go before hitting the North Sea”, ofers frontman Jordan Shearer – all are. They all grew up together in a tiny community, and now they’re beginning to shape some of the brightest guitar tunes of 2014. Debut track ‘Sombre Fayre’ is turning all the right ears in the industry, they’re touring with Augustines, and their favourite musician (The Coral’s Bill Ryder-Jones) has
professed his love for them already. None of this is down to luck. They have eight finished songs – after much toing and froing in their shared writing process – and today we’re treated to six gems, packed with nagging hooks, and softly maudlin ballads like closer ‘Perfect Frame’. There’s a touch of The Walkmen’s bittersweet melancholy; Jordan cradling his mic and studying the crowd from under a thick mop of Burgess-meets-Reid brothers hair. There’s not one single venue in Caithness, which makes their sharpness even more impressive. So where do they need to go to play, or see a band? “Aberdeen. It’s still fucking 200 miles away though,” grins Jordan. DC
►For daily new music recommendations and exclusive tracks and videos go to NME.COM/NEWMUSIC 17 MAY 2 01 4 | N ew M u s icAl e xpre s s
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The problem with being a cool-as-fuck guitar band from New York is that people can’t help but make the obvious comparison. “You can’t get away from it!” says Public Access TV frontman John Eatherly. “All we hear about is The Strokes. We liked those records when we were young, but it’s been so many years. We’re already almost halfway into a new decade and we’re still hearing about the same old shit! Fuck that!” The band’s fresh take on the sort of smart punk you’d have heard at CBGB in the ’70s is irresistible live, despite the fact that their shows at The Great Escape are just
5 4 top 10 New BaNDS
Spring King Anchored by singing drummer Tarek Musa’s rollicking beats and shouty vox, Manchester collective Spring King hurtle through tracks from their 2013 mixtape ‘In All This Murk And Dirt’ to a heaving mass at the Prince Albert. It’s their hooky calling card ‘Mumma’ where they shine brightest – a glorious melding of krautrock
rhythms, snarling guitars and Beach Boys-indebted backing vocals. Tarek holds it all together, crooning like Wu Lyf’s Ellery Roberts reborn, while the rest of the band manically thrash away at their instruments. DC ►S o c i a l @springkingband ►H e a r t H e m springking. bandcamp.com
Copenhagen teens Baby In Vain may look like butter wouldn’t melt, but put a couple of guitars and drumsticks in Lola Hammerich, Benedicte Pierleoni and Andrea Thuesen’s hands and the trio take a turn into darkness. Blasting powerhouse rifs
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Jaakko eino Kalevi In his hometown, Tiituspohja, Finnish electronica maestro Jaakko Eino Kalevi used to drive trams. With his music, the route is always changing as he veers through LCD Soundsystem synth cuts and bright melodies that belong more in ’80s new romantic than of-kilter electropop. As his Dome Studio set continues, Jaako bobs around the stage, building walls of metallic, leftfield fun. RD ►S o c i a l @Jaakoeino ►H e a r H i m soundcloud.com/ jeks
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through the tiny sweatbox that is The Hope, the band take the best bits of grunge and Black Sabbath and merge them into doomy perfection. Their set is sinister, sharp and stupidly exciting. RD ►S o c i a l @babyinvain ►H e a r t H e m soundcloud. com/baby-in-vain
WoRDS: MATT WILKINSoN, RHIAN DALy, KEVIN EG PERRy, DAN CARSoN PHoToS: JENN FIVE, JoRDAN HUGHES, ANDy FoRD
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Baby in Vain
Bad Breeding
the magic Gang Local heroes always do well at The Great Escape, and The Magic Gang pack Latest Music Bar to the rafters – literally, as stagediver after stagediver smacks against the ceiling. A super-tight quartet who’ve clearly been raised on a diet of Mac De Marco
and Diiv, they may put on American accents but there’s something coolly British about their melodies, like Blur circa ’93, and they’re full of the kind of confidence that comes when you know you’re the toast of the town. MW ►So cial @_themagicgang ►Hear t Hem soundcloud. com/themagicgang
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9 cheerleader There’s something a little earnest about Philadelphia boys Cheerleader, in their stage patter as well as their music. But what the five-piece lack in banter they make up for with jangly haze. Their Corn Exchange standout track, ‘Sunshine’, is practically the only example of that rare phenomenon in Brighton all weekend, while other tracks are full of lovingly enunciated American place names
The ghosts of those early Iceage and Eagulls gigs where you felt one of the band might end up lamping you if they caught you looking at your phone hang heavy throughout Bad Breeding’s set at Bleach. Bathed in a single red light, the four-piece antagonise throughout: singer Christopher Dodd spends more time in the crowd than onstage, while guitarist Matt Toll – a dead-eyed spit of Winterland-era Sid Vicious – is the gobby mess who holds it all together musically. MW ►S o cia l badbreeding.com ►H e a r t H e m soundcloud. com/badbreeding
like “Massachusetts”and “Californ-i-a”. Think Vampire Weekend if they replaced their African drum sound with pure Americana. KP ►So cial @chrleadersounds ►Hear t Hem soundcloud. com/cheerleadersounds
Dracula legs Imbibing the spirit of cult Scots heroes Country Teasers may be more fashionable at the moment than ever before – and Dracula Legs join Fat White Family in successfully making wilfully skewed art punk that sounds altogether riveting. The London-based four-piece come from all over, but sound and look like a proper gang, packing out The Hope while still being new enough to have a rawness to them that’s alluring rather than shoddy. Frontman Artur, meanwhile, possesses perhaps the most intense stare this side of Nick Cave. MW ►S o cia l @draculalegs ►H e a r t H e m soundcloud. com/draculalegs
►For daily new music recommendations and exclusive tracks and videos go to NME.COM/NEWMUSIC 17 MaY 2014 | Ne w M u s ical e x pre s s
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aLbuM
oF tHe Week
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the London poet’s debut is a tragic, redemptive rap fable indebted to the streets’ ‘a Grand don’t Come For Free’
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Kate Tempest is 27 years old, a poet from Brockley, south London, and recipient of the Ted Hughes Award for her 2012 piece Brand New Ancients. But that’s just the half of it. She left school with no A-levels, hung out in squats, sung in bands, and her voice itself is hardly plummy: one of those 21st-century London accents comparable to Jamie T or Micachu, a seen-it-all drawl dotted with street slang and glottal stops that sounds one minute like it might mug you on the top deck of the 171 bus, and the next like it might crumble under the cracks of emotion. As a performance poet, Tempest is good, in a sort of ‘on before Robin Ince in the Latitude literary tent’ kind of way. As a rapper, though, she’s excellent, balancing deft fow and dense storytelling to the detriment of
neither. Recorded in a fortnight stretch with Dan Carey, a producer and remixer for the likes of Bat For Lashes, Toy and Hot Chip, ‘Everybody Down’ brings to life a plotline that’ll be more fully explored in Tempest’s debut novel, published by Bloomsbury later this year. It’s hard to imagine it being more gripping than this, though. Carey’s neatly sculpted club productions tone down Tempest’s occasional tendency towards whimsy, and infate moments of emotion or tension. The result is both a 12-track album and a modern-day London fable: a tale of love, tragedy and redemption as elegantly plotted as The Streets’ ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’. It begins with strobes and the stench of sweat. ‘Marshall Law’ beams you right to the bar of an insuferably fashionable east London club, where a velour-clad video director holds court and “everyone here has a hyphenated second name/Blowing more breeze like the wind at a weathervane”. There, a girl called
New M u s ical e x pre s s | 17 M ay 2014
ILLUSTRATION: jIMMy TURRELL
kate tempest everybody down
Pure X
the characters on ‘everybody down’
■ LoUis PattisoN
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Big Dada ►ReLease date May 19 ►PRoduceR Dan Carey
►tRackListing ►1. Marshall Law ►2. The Truth ►3. Lonely Daze
4. Chicken ►5. The Beigeness ►6. Theme From Becky ►7. Stink 8. The Heist ►9. To The Victor The Spoils ►10. Circles ►11. A Hammer ►12. Happy End ► b e st t R ac k Marshall Law ► ►
■ bEN HoMEWood
the so so glos blowout the brooklyn band’s fourth is poppunk with grit under its fingernails
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‘Blowout’ is what pop-punk used to sound like in the ’90s; thrashy, unreconstructed party-rock of the Bad Religion variety. Compared to the raucous sound of The Clash et al, US punk can often sound sanitised and vaguely anodyne. But in comparison to, say, Paramore, ‘Blowout’ is full-on dirty, chipped-tooth, DIY scrapping, balancing pop-punk’s gloss – big choruses and pop melodies – with a sense of antiestablishment mischief. Of the 12 tracks featured, eight are ludicrously catchy, Green Day’s ‘Dookie’-grade gems, highlights including ‘Lost Weekend’ (pop-punk perfection), ‘Son Of An American’ (a clean-cut Japandroids) and ‘Speakeasy’ (The Strokes’ ‘Someday’ meets 22-forever skater-punk). Marred only by waltzy ballad ‘Island Ridin’’, ‘Blowout’ is for fans of feeling good about life. Poppunk minus the emo gloom.
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Foxes
glorious Sony/Sign Of The Times Ltd
Foxes, aka Louisa rose allen, is kooky: we know this because, in the video for her first UK top 10 hit, ‘Let Go For tonight’, she becomes embroiled in an actual cupcake fight. still, the southampton starlet’s debut ‘Glorious’ gives good pop. ‘youth’ and ‘talking to Ghosts’ do a solid job of impersonating bat For Lashes minus the art-school trimmings. ‘Holding onto Heaven’ possesses a bombast befitting its grandiose title, while the aforementioned ‘Let Go…’ is bigger still — it’s practically bonnie tyler’s ‘Holding out For a Hero’ in aztec-print disguise. the formula wears pretty thin towards the end – bee-stung emoting in the verses, splashy catharsis in the chorus – but ‘Glorious’ is no failure. ■ aLEx dENNEy
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■ JoHN CaLvErt
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►ReLease date
May 19 ►LabeL Votiv/Caroline International Adam Reich ►L e n gt H 46:18 ►t R ac k L i st i n g ►1. Son Of An American ►2. House Of Glass ►3. Diss Town ►4. Lost Weekend ►5. Blowout ►6. Wrecking Ball ►7. Speakeasy ►8. All Of The Time ►9. Everything Revival ►10. Island Ridin’ ►11. Dizzy ►12. We Got The Days (UK bonus track) ►13. Emergency (UK bonus track) ►b e st t R ac k Speakeasy ►PRoduceR
Archie Bronson Outfit
Wild crush Domino this is archie bronson’s first album since the departure of bassist dorian Hobday, but ‘Wild Crush’ isn’t the sound of a group in mourning. the band’s fourth album is full of dirty songs for even dirtier dancing. ‘Hunch your body, Love somebody’ bristles with priapic grooves, while ‘We are Floating’ is a stampeding
17 May 2 01 4 | N ew M u s ical e xpre s s
psych masterclass. regular collaborator duke Garwood (who’s worked with Mark Lanegan and savages) adds bluesy sax to intergalactic slow jam ‘Lori From the outer reaches’ and the dreamy freak folk of ‘Country Miles’. the souped-up psych of ‘Glory, sweat and Flow’, meanwhile, proves that, though depleted in number, archie bronson still do pop as well as they do peculiar. ■ LEoNiE CooPEr
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Becky falls into conversation with Harry, a reluctant drug dealer who’s overindulged at the free bar and splurges everything about his miserable life. The music shifts and mutates in line with Tempest’s unfolding narrative; as strobe lights fash, the synths warp and ficker. Harry falls for Becky, but Becky leaves with her mates, and they Becky laugh about it in the cab: Kind-hearted and pragmatic, “I know he was one of becky is trying to pay her those save-me types/And way through university, I couldn’t be dealing with but when her part-time job that, not tonight”. at her uncle’s café won’t And so, a story creaks cover rent, she decides to into life. Tempest writes take on a second job as complex and believable a masseuse, and soon finds characters, each one herself giving extras to carrying their problems lonely clients. like a lead weight hung inside their heart. She Pete has a skill for spinning becky’s boyfriend Pete has perspectives. On ‘Theme a degree in international From Becky’, the heroine relations, but he’s too proud fnds her way into sex to take a job at Primark, work, but takes a certain preferring to sit at home pride in her job, and in front of the snooker. He Tempest makes her case loves becky, but he’s also without judgment. But the jealous type, and her then ‘Stink’ scoops us into choice of career is driving the head of her boyfriend a wedge between them.e. Pete, a turbulent maelstrom of electronics Harry with a cameo from Willy He tells his parents he Mason that broils with works in recruitment, but cuckolded jealousy: “He Harry’s really a small-time can’t fnd the words to say/ drug dealer. the illicit nature I don’t want your hands on of his work might bring another man’s vertebrae”. cash, but it isn’t doing much No spoilers, obviously, for his sanity. He meets but the story that follows becky at a club and falls is a lurid and dramatic for her hard – but his shady one that spans a drug mate Leon is just about to deal gone wrong (‘The get them in a huge heap Heist’), a dreadful of trouble. bargain made over a pub table (‘A Hammer’), and a man with the “complexion the colour of chewed-up bar snacks”. There’s plenty of narrative exposition, but Tempest is fast-tongued enough to spit story even over the racing funk of ‘The Beigeness’, and tracks like the Roots Manuva-ish ‘Lonely Daze’ drive home the theme – that only love can save us – with honesty and clarity. It all comes to a climax, so to speak, on ‘Happy End’. Not everyone leaves unscathed, of course, but Kate Tempest isn’t the sort to sugar-coat things: this is storytelling, but it’s also real life.
angel Fat Possum Pure x used to be a drone-rock band. Following 2013’s fractured ‘Crawling Up the stairs’, ‘angel’ shows the texans taking another step away from the density of their 2011 debut ‘Pleasure’. they’re now defined by cascading, heart-shaped soft rock – or, as singer Nate Grace puts it on the album’s third track ‘Livin’ the dream’, they have “fallen into a dream”. ‘Make you Want Me’, ‘Heaven’ and ‘starlight’ underline the shift, twinkling like drivetime love songs. the sicklier side to their new approach (see syrupy closer ‘Wishin’ on the same star’) risks alienating older fans, but overall, Pure x’s immersive charm remains intact. only ‘rain’ betrays the heady sonics of old.
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PLUS
Data Panik Etcetera Do Yourself In
Can it be almost 20 years since unsigned Glasgow trio Bis gatecrashed Top Of The Pops with the shock and awe of twee standardbearer ‘kandy Pop’? Thanks to that song, Manda Rin, Sci-Fi Steven and John Disco will always be synonymous with youthful exuberance, and in the intervening years they’ve lost none of their vim. ‘Cubis (i Love you)’ is rampant death disco, ‘Rulers And The States’ is like a full-throttle machinephase Gary Numan, ‘Sense Not Sense’ is like Duran Duran on poppers partying harder than Duran Duran. in defiance of a criminal lack of universal adulation, they just get better, harder, faster, stronger, and you boggle at just how formidable they might be in their dotage. ■ JeReMy ALLeN
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The Brian Jonestown Massacre Revelation A Recordings Anton Newcombe is one of those rare artists who manages to stay prolific without compromising his output. ‘Revelation’ plays like a mixtape showcasing the broad spectrum of styles his band have absorbed over two decades and 14 albums. There’s psych-rock (‘Xibalba’), trance-like motorik grooves (‘Memorymix’), propulsive instrumentals (‘Duck And Cover’), bluesy introspection (‘Days, Weeks And Moths’) and off-kilter moments that seem disconnected from any time and place (‘Second Sighting’). At times that flow can feel fractured, but the underlying consistency is a singular vision and an irrepressible sense of purpose. ■ CiAN TRAyNoR
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Various Hyperdub 10.1 The pioneering dance label’s compilation focuses on the bangers Hyperdub is perceived as either a dance label for chinstrokers or an important chapter in the tale of how dubstep went mainstream. Neither point of view gives the full picture. Founded in 2004 by Steve Goodman, better known as producer Kode9 (above), the label came to the fore in 2008 when Burial’s second album, ‘Untrue’, was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Any temptation to hammer that nocturnal, garage-derived sound into paydirt was avoided: Goodman expanded the label’s remit to include just about any electronic music he liked. A decade on, here’s two rambunctious hours of it. ‘Hyperdub 10.1’, the frst of
four planned anniversary collections, highlights his taste for dancefoor bangers: most of these 33 tracks are uptempo bolts of energy. Burial kicks of Disc Two with the dub-techno rumble of 2006 album track ‘Spaceape’, but there’s nothing by recent alumni like the R&B-ish Jessy Lanza or American electronica artist Laurel Halo. From the start of the frst disc, though, there’s garage with an ’80s funk interlude (DVA, ‘Mad Hatter’) and combative grime with lithe rhymes and deep bass (Flowdan’s ‘Ambush’). The genre of Chicago footwork is also represented by DJ Spinn, DJ Earl and the late DJ Rashad, whose recent passing adds an unexpected poignancy. Virtually unheard outside its home city a few years ago, Chicago footwork’s earworm samples and insane drum programming encapsulate how Hyperdub is music for both the head and the feet. Everything on the second half of ‘10.1’ ► has been released before, but the S tracklisting reignites a few minor ►R E l E a S E DaT E May 19 ►l a b E l Hyperdub ►P R o D U c E R S Various ►l E n GT H 127:23 dancefoor anthems. UK funky, feeting ►T R ac k l i ST i n G DiSC oNe ►1. Mad Hatter – DVA ►2. Girl U So Strong – Kyle Hall ►3. subgenre that it was, is represented by Expected – Mala ►4. Mtzpn – Kuedo ►5. Xingfu Lu (Helix Remix) – Kode9 ►6. Kaytsu – Champion, Funkystepz and Ill Blu’s Morgan Zarate ►7. Ambush (produced by Footsie) – Flowdan ►8. Only The Strong Survive brilliant ‘Clapper’; grime legend Terror – Taso & Djunya ►9. All My Teklife – DJ Spinn ►10. Get Em Up – DJ Taye ►11. I’m Gonna Danjah gets two selections and there’s Get You – DJ Earl ►12. Icemaster – Heavee ►13. Acid Life – DJ Rashad & Gant Man ►14. other genre-evading greatness like Bombaklot (feat. DJ Rashad & DJ Taye) – DJ Earl ►15. Chasing The Beast – Kode9 & The Walton’s ‘Aggy’ and LV’s ‘Sebenza’. Spaceape ►16. Hanabi – Quarta 330 DiSC TWo ►1. Spaceape (feat. The Spaceape) – Burial This is the side of Hyperdub that aims ►2. It’s Serious (feat. Karizma) – Cooly G ►3. Bowsers Castle – Champion ►4. Natty – DVA itself at the clubs, and does so ►5. Hurricane Riddim – Funkystepz ►6. Clapper – Ill Blu ►7. Aggy – Walton ►8. Idiot – Ikonika excellently. Flinging yourself ►9. Am I – Kode9 & The Spaceape ►10. Hookid – Morgan Zarate ►11. Wind It Up (feat. Om’mas Keith) – Mark Pritchard) ►12. Dark Crawler (feat. Riko Dan) – Terror Danjah ►13. East around your house is an Coast – DOK ►14. Bruzin VIP – Terror Danjah ►15. Sebenza (feat. Okmalumkoolkat) – LV ►16. acceptable substitute, though. Xingfu Lu – Kode9 ►17. DJ Rashad – Let It Go ►b E ST T R ac k Bombaklot – DJ Earl ■ NoeL GARDNeR
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Thumpers Galore Red UK London duo Thumpers feature former Pull Tiger Tail frontman Marcus Pepperell and sometime Friendly Fires member John hamson Jr. The pair have also toured with Chvrches, and their debut album ‘Galore’ shares the pop ideals and mainstream ambitions of all three of those bands. The pointedly anthemic choruses on ‘Dancing’s
Done’ and ‘Sound of Screams’ feel like an open letter to Radio 1 playlist chiefs to forget about Bastille and give Thumpers a go instead. But with ‘Tame’ and the Summer Camp-featuring ‘Now We Are Sixteen’, they sound too pristine and over-eager. Though the undeniably catchy ‘Unkinder (A Tougher Love)’ is a highlight, this is an album that sounds like a follower, not a leader. Too often, Thumpers fall flat. ■ DAviD ReNShAW
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The Sunshine Underground The Sunshine Underground PledgeMusic As Leeds’ premiere jerk rockers, The Sunshine Underground could lay claim to paving the way for Foals and Two Door Cinema Club, but on this third album they largely ditch the guitars and bask in the prevailing neon fireball of ’80s electropop. They’re late to the party, but immaculately primped:
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‘Turn it on’ and ‘Nightlife’ are the sort of suave, melodic human League homages that hurts think they’re playing, and there’s real invention in the seven-minute game of poltergeist ping-pong that is ‘Battles’. Besides ‘it is only you’ and ‘here Comes The Storm’, the mountainshouting bravado of old tracks like ‘Borders’ and ‘Put you in your Place’ has been dampened, but ‘TSU’ is an intriguing new sunrise. ■ MARk BeAUMoNT
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Eastern Hollows
Eastern Hollows Club AC30
Judging by this, their debut album, Brooklyn five-piece eastern hollows are big fans of The stone roses. From the ’90s British vibe of ‘The Way That you’ve Gone’ onwards, tuneless vocalist Travis DeVries – previously of seattle
alt.rockers The Turn-Ons – is a consistent distraction from the mellow fuzz-pop going on around him. The singer’s of-key hollering deadens the potentially charming ‘summer’s Dead’, while he also struggles to climb the peaks of ‘Mickey Galaxy’ or navigate the sepia-toned guitar haze of ‘i have The Past’ without sounding ofputting. say what you like about ian Brown’s singing abilities, but at least he nailed it on record. ■ siMOn Jay caTlinG
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Tom Williams & The Boat
Easy Fantastic Moshi Moshi
The name Tom Williams & The Boat might conjure up visions of dweeby acoustic troubadours, but this Kent five-piece’s third album is awash with blustering, vintage rock’n’roll. Though there remains an overly earnest aspect to Williams’ gruf vocals and acoustic strumming – all too prevalent on their last
record, 2012’s ‘Teenage Blood’ – ‘easy Fantastic’ shows more depth. lead single ‘all Day’ features angelic backing vocals from The london community Gospel choir while the band’s leader details his lovestruck state; ‘hurricane’ adopts a bluesy country twang. Though ‘easy Fantastic’ is a progression for Tom Williams & The Boat, it’s far from breaking new ground, sounding ready-made for the placid waters of radio 2. ■ rhian Daly
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Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain 30
The Bright eyes man is back to his sincere, melancholy best on his latest album
Archive
Axiom Dangervisit
Many of the mid-’90s acts who were tagged as ‘triphop’ have enjoyed careers far exceeding that term’s brief window of coolness (Portishead and Tricky, for example). london group archive never made that elusive commercial breakthrough but, with ‘axiom’, they’ve reached their eighth album. it doesn’t sound like trip-hop, although Darius Keeler and Danny Grifiths retain a taste for electronic beats, dramatic vocals and filmic drama. They also like church bells, lengthy samples of which bookend the seven tracks here. Fans of latter-day radiohead may dig the paranoid shufle of ‘Transmission Data Terminate’, and ‘shiver’ carries its prog balladry with style. But, overall, ‘axiom’ is a trip, rather than a hop, forward.
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■ nOel GarDner
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Yann Tiersen
∞ (Infinity) Mute
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When Conor Oberst was 19, he wrote and recorded the third Bright Eyes album, the melancholy and magnifcent ‘Fevers And Mirrors’. As tortured and angst-ridden as it was, it possessed a lyrical, musical and thematic depth that was way beyond his years. Almost a decade and a half later, it remains his masterpiece. He’s come close, namely on Bright Eyes’ ‘Lifted…’ and ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’, as well as the acerbic politipunk of the Desaparecidos side-project. At times, much of the rest of his vast discography has come of as pastiche – especially when indulging his passion for country music. Too often, it has just sounded disingenuous. On this most recent solo efort, it seems the earnest Oberst of old has returned. These 13 songs slow-dance between folk, country and, well, sounding like Bright Eyes,
but there is a cohesion and sincerity here that has been missing. Opener ‘Time Forgot’ could be a song from his distant past. It’s a trembling, nostalgic rumination on life and love with added hindsight – as if he’s putting an arm around his 19-year-old self and giving out advice. Similarly, ‘Zigzagging Toward The Light’ – imagine Eagle-Eye Cherry’s ‘Save Tonight’ recast as a Paul Simon tune – fows with a naive emotional wonder but possesses a weary, heavy heart. There are tinges of country in the lilt of ‘Artifact #1’ and ‘Enola Gay’, as well as the sad slide guitar cadences of ‘Night At Lake Unknown’, but they only add to the air of melancholy. A sense of vulnerability is present throughout the whole album, not least on the triptych that closes it out – the metallic shimmer of ‘Governor’s Ball’, the gentle resignation of ‘Desert Island Questionnaire’ and ► S the jaded romanticism of ‘Common Knowledge’. ►R e l e a s e Dat e May 19 ►l a b e l Nonesuch ►P R O D U C e R Jonathan Wilson It all harks back to the word-in-your-ear ►l e n gt h 54:21 ►t R aC k l i st i n g ►1. Time Forgot ►2. Zigzagging Toward confessionals of ‘Fevers And Mirrors’. The Light ►3. Hundreds Of Ways ►4. Artifact #1 ►5. Lonely At The Top Were it not for the whimsical, country►6. Enola Gay ►7. Double Life ►8. Kick ►9. Night At Lake Unknown tropical jangle of ‘Hundreds Of Ways’, ►10. You Are Your Mother’s Child ►11. Governor’s Ball ►12. Desert Island ‘Upside Down Mountain’ would very Questionnaire ►13. Common Knowledge ►b e st t R aC k Time Forgot nearly be its equal. ■ Mischa PearlMan
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yann Tiersen was responsible for the soundtrack to Amélie. however, the success of his score for the 2001 romantic comedy has threatened to overshadow his other work. This, his eighth studio album, is a moody reflection on the stony, weather-beaten island of Ushant, 30 kilometres of the coast of Brittany, that the French composer calls home. it includes songs sung in the icelandic and Faroese languages, with the music built up from a base of toy instruments in layers of electronic sounds and strings, combining the charm of Amélie with the grey-skied gloom of sigur rós. Tiersen never loses touch with his innate sense of melody, but the lack of edge means that ‘infinity’’s charms are, in fact, finite. ■ Ben carDeW
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film
Made In America
RECENTLY RATED IN NME Swans To Be Kind
Director Ron Howard backstage with Beyoncé and Jay Z
A feature-length documentary on Jay Z’s beer-funded Philadelphia music festival
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Gruff Rhys
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Luke Haines
Cherry Red
After two decades picking over Britain’s cultural memory, ‘new york In the ’70s’ sees Auteurs and Black Box Recorder man Luke Haines revive an obsession with the Big Apple that dates right back to the Auteurs’ single ‘Chinese Bakery’, in 1994. Its portraits of downtown legends like
Lou Reed and Alan Vega are far more afectionate than much of his scabrous output, with music that flits between dreamy Velvets simplicity and the synthetic throb of suicide. Haines’ genius breaks through in the Blakean visions of ‘Cerne Abbas man’ and ‘ny stars’, which marry America’s “mythic muthafuckin’ rock’n’roll” to england’s past via his own career as mischievous pop irritant. ■ stuARt Huggett
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Chris Stroffolino
Griffith Park Broken Horse The Devil And Daniel Johnson director Jef Feuerzeig discovered homeless poet/ musician and sometime silver Jew lyric-writer Chris strofolino busking at a piano in an LA parking lot. Inspired, he decided to record an album with him, and the resulting 12 songs are as odd as the whole scenario. Lyrics like
“It’s better to have loved and lost/it’s not like it’s the holocaust” (‘Wherever It’s grey’) are certainly unusual, and there’s an idiosyncratic charm in these strippedback recordings of beatenout chords and dissonant emoting. But to say it’s for everybody would be outright fibbing. At times, ‘grifin Park’ sounds like grampa simpson has taken a neglected upright piano hostage – a fairly niche proposition. ■ JeRemy ALLen
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American Interior “Gruf Rhys’ Guernica: an album written while following the journey of an 18th century Welsh explorer hunting a mythical, Welshspeaking tribe of native Americans.” (NME, May 10)
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Teen The Way And Color “With a wide array of instrumentation, it’s an ambitious attempt at an extravagant pop record. The band show a deft touch for layered orchestration, with a silkier, more soulinfused sound.” (NME, May 3)
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Oliver Wilde Red Tide Opal In The Loose End Womb “Forgive the title, which seems to be some kind of pretentious analogy about menstruation: Bristol songsmith Oliver Wilde’s second LP is as dreamy and gorgeous as they come. Truly magical stuf.” (NME, May 3)
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Wye Oak Shriek “Wye Oak’s records have a slow-burning property. The moodiness is at a minimum, but the melancholy remains. They’re beginning to blossom.” (NME, April 26)
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In 2012, the rap producer-turned-branding director a DJ lesson; the cameras follow Rita Ora – who expert Steve Stoute brokered a deal between is signed to Jay Z’s label – all the way back to London. Jay Z and the American brewing giant It’s left to the erudite and passionate Darryl ‘DMC’ Anheuser-Busch. The makers of Budweiser would McDaniels to explain why his artform is so important bankroll a two-day festival to be held in Philadelphia, (“Music succeeds where politics and religion fail”). which Jay would headline and curate: it Howard also follows a trio of Philadelphians was called Made In America, a phrase the through the festival weekend. A caterer brewer has trademarked. The Oscar-winning who is relying on the event to kick-start her director Ron Howard was drafted in – pun mobile taco business, a promoter trying to get possibly intended – to make a featurePhilly newcomers onto the bill, and a jobbing length documentary, and this sporadically stagehand discuss life on the brink of debt, yet absorbing, occasionally amusing and not once does Howard address the ironies of consistently perplexing flm is the result. them doing so as part of what is, ultimately, Howard has apparently wrestled with the a 90-minute advertisement for beer. conundrum at the heart of his task – how As the A-listers agonise over the ailing ►d I R E CTO R do you make art out of something that is American dream (“Politics has become like Ron Howard really just an exercise in aligning various bad weather,” says Eddie Vedder, adding that ►STA R R I N G Jay Z, commercial interests? – but chosen to ignore ordinary Americans “deserve clear skies”), Pearl Jam, Run-DMC, it. Consequently, his flm stumbles upon its the flm stays silent on the reasons for its own Skrillex, Odd Future, important truths by accident. existence. The way they all talk about “giving Rita Ora, The Hives Although the cover gives the impression back”, you might think Made In America ►R E L E A S E dAT E VoD that this is a Jay Z concert flm, there’s little was a free festival, yet the cheapest two-day and DVD on 19 May more than 10 minutes of him playing live. tickets cost $135 and the artists were paid well; The majority of Hov’s time on screen is interviews, Vedder’s band, Pearl Jam, reportedly got $2 million. in which he hymns self-determination and says he’s Last month, Jay Z announced that this year’s Made unexceptional. “Every human being has genius-level In America – it has become an annual event – would be talent,” he claims at one point. staged in both Philadelphia and Los Angeles. “I’m not Fine coverage of sets by The Hives, Janelle Monáe a businessman – I’m a business, man”, he once and the excellent blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr vie for famously rapped. It’s a line that should be kept top billing with backstage footage. Tyler, The Creator in mind when watching this entertaining but makes faces as Howard asks questions; Skrillex gives the disingenuous flm. ■ Angus BAtey
New York In The ‘70s
“‘To Be Kind’ lasts for two hours, each of its 10 songs a mini-symphony of discord and unease. It’s an insane and challenging, ambitious and exceptional work of art.” (NME, May 10)
32 Palma Violets at The Faversham, Leeds
Live At Leeds
Various Venues Leeds
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May 2-4
Palma Violets top a bank holiday weekend of raucous, ramshackle rock’n’roll
danny payne
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“We’ve got new songs and old songs,” Palma Violets’ bassist Chilli Jesson tells the Live At Leeds crowd packed into The Faversham on Saturday night. Opening with riotous newbie ‘Gout! Gang! Go!’, the south London lads fizz with the same on-the-brink-of-collapse punk spirit that defined their debut album ‘180’. Another new track, the groove-laden ‘Danger In The Club’, follows, before ‘Best Of Friends’ and ‘Step Up For The Cool Cats’ inspire the crowd to form a surging, bouncing mass as Chilli tries (and fails) to orchestrate a circle pit. ‘Matador’, the third and final new song of the night, seemingly changes time-signature every minute in a constantly twisting burst of ramshackle staccato guitar hits. It’s the most complex Palmas song to date, and a reminder that punk doesn’t have to be simple. →
Fat White Family at Mine, Leeds University
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This year’s Live At Leeds, which takes place over three days at more than 20 venues across the city, kicks of the night before the Palmas’ show with two very diferent gigs. On Friday night at The Cockpit, Brighton duo Blood Red Shoes play a ferce Friday night headline set, while across town at Brudenell Social Club, London musos Melt Yourself Down churn out their infectious jazz-funk fusion. On Saturday, the afternoon slot at the Met Uni shows of some local produce as Leeds-based duo Menace Beach unleash a caustic ‘Teenage Jesus’. With Liza Violet in a white jumper as fuzzy as their guitars and Ryan Needham wearing a cardigan over his Sonic Youth T-shirt, they appear oblivious to the frst rays of summer heating the city outside. In the early evening, south London trio Happyness play to a small but appreciative audience at Brudenell Social Club. Though their sound veers between country, American college rock and raucous rock’n’roll, the genre hops are neatly segued with Benji Compston and Jonny Allan’s of-kilter song introductions (“this song’s about the person at the party who kills everyone”). ‘Montreal Rock Band Somewhere’ rounds of the set, with the two vocalists sharing speak-singing duties and ending in a frenzied dual guitar/bass attack. At O2 Academy Leeds, Chlöe Howl struts back and forth in a black crop top and A-line miniskirt, grinning and pouting through ‘Drop In The Ocean’ and ‘No Strings’. A hyperactive lightshow does a neat job of distracting from an occasional lack of direction. Final track ‘Rumour’, with its
Chlöe Howl at O2 Academy Leeds
Blood Red shoes
How good?
LInE-up
melt youRselF doWn
menaCe BeaCh
Fat White Family on… …going on far too early
White Pizza [at Belgrave music Hall]. i like playing in leeds, man. The north, generally, is more fun. They’re a bit more… ‘oop for it’. Then you get up to glasgow and it’s just a little too much.”
refrain “I’m just trying to Saul Adamczewski (guitar): “Tonight was a really good work out how to be myself”, crowd. We were elevated quite may not be intentionally high so you could see everyone.” autobiographical but …going mental at every gig Lias Saoudi (vocals): “There strikes a chord, as yet Lias: “if it’s every time, then was no-one there at first…” physically you start to feel a bit another pithy pop ditty Saul: “That’s ’cos we went on sick after two or three shows. clouds her evident 10 minutes early!” But other than that, it’s always vocal talent. a pleasure. Stagediving – give it A stark counterpoint a bash. Sometimes they just drop to Howl’s pop posturing …Leeds hospitality you though and it’s humiliating. is provided by surf-psych Lias: “last time we played, in you gotta pick yourself up.” February, they made us a Fat hedonists The Wytches, who ignite the uni’s packed venue, Mine. The Brighton three-piece careen straight into bassist Dan Rumsey wind up in the audience, their swampy, screaming garage rock. Singer held aloft by their fans. Kristian Bell peers occasionally out from It’s a tough act to follow, but Fat White under the hair that curtains his face, wrestling Family appear unfazed (or possibly oblivious). his guitar and strangling his vocal cords A stumbling start to ‘Auto Neutron’ makes for through the tortured punk of ‘Wire Frame an unconvincing entrance. Only singer Lias Mattress’ and ‘Wide At Midnight’. The venue’s Saoudi seems engaged with the task at hand security guards get visibly twitchy as their as the rest of the band bumble around behind set progresses and the crowd gets boisterous; him, talking into each others’ ears and gazing The Wytches appear to have picked up a few around, distracted. For a long moment, it’s tips on guitar-based riot incitement from unclear whether they have even begun, or if tourmates Pulled Apart By Horses, who this is supposed to be a soundcheck. As they will later reduce the Brudenell Social Club to pull it together, the psychedelic jam begins a mass of failing limbs at the end of the night. to gel. The song builds to its multi-vocal Ending on ‘Crying Clown’, both Kristian and crescendo, with Lias a paroxysm of red-faced,
happyness
Chlöe hoWl
the WytChes
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Fat White Family
palma violets
dum dum giRls
danny pane, giles smith
LIVE
The Districts Rae Morris
Wilton’s Music Hall, London thursday, may 1
vein-popping emotion, leaning out into the crowd, eyes bulging. By the song’s close, the entire room is enraptured. “That was supposed to be the soundcheck,” he ofers, semi-apologetically, before guitarist Saul Adamczewski says, “Fuck it, we’ll just play for T H E V I E W F R O M T H E C R OW D longer.” They drown out the music on the PA until the sound Joe, 26, Cape town technician relents “Live At Leeds has been great. and lets them play on. I’ve found a lot of The pub-rock-cumnew bands I wouldn’t really punk aesthetic of ‘Is It have listened to before. Best Raining In Your Mouth?’ performances were Fat White sees the band fully Family and Yuck.” locked in. The track Maria, 20, spain morphs efortlessly into “It’s my first time ’60s garage doo-wop at Live at Leeds. before giving way to I love it. It’s so good the wig-out of ‘Wild to have music of every type at American Prairie’ and every venue.” the bar-room drawl of Carlo, 21, leeds ‘Touch The Leather’. “Fat White Family Saul and fellow guitarist were fucking ace. Adam J Harmer bumble I’ve seen them around the stage before – last time I saw them in behind their frontman, Sheffield, the guy shat on his hands, rubbed it all over himself making the most of the and rolled around on the floor. little space they have. I was quite surprised he didn’t Joseph Pancucci on do that.” bass maintains an air of cocky nonchalance Ian, 24, london until the ramshackle “Fat White Family were amazing ending of ‘Bomb tonight. It’s nice to Disneyland’, when he see a band so into it. It’s just loses it, throwing his really entertaining. You never bass to the ceiling. A quite know what’s going to section of wood tumbles happen. I liked it at the end to the stage as he lunges when he smashed something on the roof.” at his bandmates, while Lias launches himself of the stage and into the baying throng. On Sunday, the ‘hangover’ event at Brudenell treats us more gently, with a headline slot from Dum Dum Girls singer Dee Dee Penny, who has a ‘cast by Lynch’ appeal, looking sultry in black hotpants and a transparent polka-dot top. Three-part harmonies are delivered with a nod to Twin Peaks as their sound takes a new route through the ’80s. It’s a brilliant and soothing way to close Live At Leeds’ weekend of wild diversity. ■ Hayley avron and rHian daly
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■ anguS BaTey
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Sean Nicholas Savage
Korova, Liverpool Friday, may 2
Ten people mill around the bar while even fewer watch the stage. it’s not the ideal setting for a solo set from Canadian balladeer Sean nicholas Savage at liverpool Sound City – something he’s acutely aware of, muttering “this sucks” to a pal before sloping onstage. However, with only a minimal backing track for company tonight, his soaring vocals are brought into sharp focus, leaping up and down most impressively through ‘naturally’. With his face painted white, his bleached hair slicked back and his eyes closed tight at every crescendo, there’s no denying Savage’s commitment to the performance. it’s commendable, really, given the adverse circumstances. ■ Simon Jay CaTling
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Sebright Arms, London Wednesday, April 30 a set of cataclysmic country-blues and rabid garage rock from the rising uS quintet
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Don’t be fooled by The Districts’ shit self-released debut album ‘Telephone’. While that 2012 record sounds like an evil scheme to mate Marcus Mumford and Paolo Nutini, onstage the Pennsylvanian foursome are a mutant Alabama Shakes that’ve been caught in a radioactive accident, grown to the size of Canary Wharf and set about fattening Williamsburg. Guitarist Mark Larson (who looks like a long-lost Beach Boy) and frontman Rob Grote (who resembles a beanie-hatted Seth Rogen) lead bassist Connor Jacobus and drummer Braden Lawrence through the most invigorated garage country-blues outside of Tom Waits’ last night-terror. It’s not all Howlin’ Wolf with rabies – ‘Lyla’ (not that one) has hints of Band Of Horses, ‘Long Distance’ and ‘Peaches’ smack of quasi-grunge Sebadoh pop, and ‘Sleepy Song Pt 2’ is a crackly lullaby that could rid Jack White of the red mist in seconds. But it’s their hell-ripped blues psychouts that really stun, such as when new song ‘Bold’ builds to a cataclysm that imagines The Strokes possessed by the furious poltergeist of Jef Buckley. Or when S E T L I ST they take someone smashing a glass against the ceiling as a call for ►lyla an encore, and dive straight into ►Rocking Chair a riveting fnale of ‘Young Blood’. ►Call Box Grote bawls and warbles “it’s a long ►Chlorine way down from the top to the ►sleepy song pt 2 ►telephone bottom” as though locked in a fght ►long distance to the death with his inner ►sliver Couplets Joe Cocker, and the band ►peaches take a skydive from the top ►Bold of Black Mountain. ►Funeral Beds ►young Blood ■ marK BeaumonT
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Happyness at Brudenell Social Club
Watching rae morris between songs, it’s a struggle to believe she’s the author of her own music. Peeping out shyly from behind a curtain of long, dark curls, she speaks so quietly it’s hard to catch a word – but the moment she touches her piano, she’s transformed. The billowing clouds of ‘For you’ and the desolate ache of ‘don’t go’ show a truly gifted songwriter at work, while the range and baroque embellishments of ‘do you even Know’ mean the 21-year-old from Blackpool has the potential to reach the same virtuoso vocal bracket as Björk or a Sinéad o’Connor. She sings as she writes: directly, emotively, full of heart.
LIVE
Wolf Alice King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow Thursday, May 1 The noisy Londoners are still developing their sound, and have a surprising cover version up their sleeves
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Wolf Alice on… …their long-awaited new album Jof Oddie (guitar): “in terms of writing, the album is pretty much done. We’re hoping to go into the studio to record it sometime in late summer. as for what’s going to be on there, we don’t really know yet, but we have a lot of new songs flying around that we want to include.”
…what they’re watching Theo Ellis (bass): “We realised recently that we hardly ever do anything on the tourbus except stare out the window and watch “And the soundman didn’t like us!” chimes in guitarist Jof Oddie. “He was not having a good time.” Things have snowballed since then, and despite their initial hesitancy, Wolf Alice soon fnd their footing. ‘Your Love’s Whore’ is a useful microcosm of their sound, taking in the kind of choral, anthemic bluster that’s currently endemic in US indie, the blasé, uniquely British insouciance of Elastica, and a dash of singer-songwriterly angst, all in fve breathless minutes. Just as impressive is the way ‘Blush’ segues into a cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ so seamlessly you can barely spot the join. This tour is in support of their new EP ‘Creature Songs’, and three of its four tracks get an airing tonight. The pick of them is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the one that sounds least like whatever the hell Wolf Alice are supposed to sound like. Until the ear-buggering post-rock crescendo kicks in, ‘We’re Not The Same’, with its baroque folk harmonies and brooding, courtly ambience, Ne w Mu sical ex pre s s | 1 7 May 2 0 14
the roads, so we’ve been watching films. We watched one called It’s Alive yesterday, about a baby that kills people. Fucking terrible. We also watched The Last Waltz, which was pretty amazing.”
…playing with The Libertines Jof: “i had a bit of an obsession with that lot – you know the way it is when you’re a teenager, you know everything about them, you watch all the documentaries and all that stuf. They are without doubt one of the most influential bands to come out of Britain. if you walk down the street now, you’ll still see people wearing trilbies and winklepickers.” puts you in mind of (among other things) David Crosby’s meandering 1971 masterpiece ‘If Only I Could Remember My Name’, which isn’t a comparison we ever expected to make about a blog-friendly north London indie band in 2014. But the fact that you’re never quite sure where you stand with Wolf Alice is what sets them apart from the pack, and it’s a characteristic they’re keen to hold on to. “Even though the songs can sometimes sound quite diferent stylistically, there’s still a sound that you’ll know is Wolf Alice,” bassist Theo Ellis tells us post-show. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next, but I don’t think we’re going to stop experimenting, even after we go in to record the album. That’s really important to us.” Before that, though, there’s a busy summer of festivals, including an appearance at The Libertines’ Hyde Park reunion they’re all suitably ecstatic about. Just don’t throw anything at them, and they’ll be alright. ■ Barry NicoLsoN
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JENN FIvE, DEREK BREMNER
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Declared by science – or BBC Radio 6 Music data-gatherers, if you want to get all pernickety about it – to be the most blogged-about new band in Britain last year, there’s nevertheless been something admirably old-fashioned about the way Wolf Alice have gone about their business. Since blinking onto the radar in 2012, they’ve toured consistently, building up a small but dedicated fanbase in the process, and releasing a string of singles and EPs through which you can chart their growth like height marks on a doorframe. The rockist, grunge tendencies they’ve settled into of late have been arrived at via the folksy misdirection of ‘Wednesday’ and songs like ‘White Leather’ that could almost be described as ‘gentle’. For all the digital column-inches they’ve accrued in the meantime, it’s worth remembering that they only signed a proper record deal a few months ago, and that their debut album is still some way of. If this band are still in the process of fguring themselves out, that’s not necessarily a bad thing: by taking their time and developing at their own pace, they’ve probably sidestepped some of the major pratfalls associated with Next Big Thing-dom. That uncertainty, however, can sometimes translate as a lack of assertiveness: when she steps onstage tonight, frontwoman Ellie Rowsell looks apprehensive, and spends the frst couple of songs staring dolefully S E T L I ST at her tuner pedal. As opener ‘Moaning Lisa ►Moaning Lisa Smile’ comes to a close, Smile she tells the crowd how ►She ►Your Love’s Whore “excited” they are to be ►Hold Up Your here, but also entreats ►Lighters them not to “throw things ►Baby Ain’t Made at us or anything like that”. Of China It’s not that the band are ►Storms sufering an attack of frst►The Jam ►Blush/Wicked night-of-the-tour nerves, Game as Rowsell explains after ►Stupid Bitch the show: “Last time we ►You’re A Germ were in Glasgow,” she tells ►Bros NME, “we were literally ►We’re Not playing to fve people and The Same ►Fluffy the soundman.”
Damon Albarn Coves
The Lexington, London Thursday, May 1
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T H E V I E W F R O M T H E C R OW D
Natalie McBride, 18, Kilmarnock “I’ve seen them live before, but they were so good tonight! Ellie came down off the stage and hugged me at one point, I think it must have been because I was singing the lyrics.” Andy Johnson, 23, Glasgow “I have to say, it was one of the best gigs I’ve been to. I saw them supporting The 1975 a few months back and really enjoyed it, but this is the first time I’ve seen them headline.” Scott Jamieson, 21, Glasgow “This was my first time seeing them live, but I’ve followed them a lot on YouTube, watching all their videos.” Nicola McGregor, 26, Glasgow “I’ve just come home from living in France and I heard about them through my brother. They were amazing, and I’m going to see them supporting The Libertines at Hyde Park in a couple of months. Ellie is so hot! I love the way she looks onstage.”
Jungle
The Globe, Cardiff Thursday, May 1
Jungle have spent most of the past year being wilfully enigmatic – but tonight, dry ice and low lighting aside, there’s no such shyness. That they’ve worked so hard to create an air of mystery does count against them a little, though. The London septet’s slick real instruments retropop – showcased ably on ‘The Heat’ and moody soul number ‘Drops’ – suits this era of Daft Punk, Timberlake and a critically rehabbed Hall & oates but, with almost zero audience interaction, it all feels a bit session musician-y. There are signs of life, brassy single ‘Busy earnin’’ prompting actual crowd movement, but with their brief repertoire exhausted, the band depart after 40 minutes. Tonight is an introduction, and Jungle seem well worth getting to know. ■ NoeL GarDNer
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GIG OF THE WEEK
Queen Mary University, London Thursday, May 1 an emotional homecoming finds the Blur man at his most honest and personal
heavily on his back catalogue. Gorillaz’s ‘Slow Country’ (dedicated to Jamie Hewlett) and ‘Kids With Guns’ also get an airing, with Albarn’s new band The Heavy Seas “I was born just down really coming to the fore on the the road from here,” says latter’s Specials-esque dub-hop. Damon Albarn, looking The common thread running over the medium-sized hall in the through Albarn’s work tonight is Queen Mary campus in Stepney, not musical but lyrical. It’s a deeply east London. Tonight, the second personal set, recalling childhood of two homecoming shows to mark memories of nearby Leytonstone the release of his frst solo album, in ‘Hollow Ponds’, past drug use is as much about past as present. in ‘You And Me’, and ofering Reinterpreting material from Blur, an apology on ‘The History Of A The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Cheating Heart’. The house lights Gorillaz and even 2012 Afrobeat go down as he takes to the piano project Rocket Juice & The Moon, he for a startling rendition of Blur’s retraces his career and history with a stripped-back honesty rarely heard ‘Out Of Time’. It’s a rare thing to see Damon Albarn without friends and from an artist who’s been keen to collaborators, and a magical one. present himself in diferent guises ‘Clint Eastwood’ begins over the years. the encore, the band Sauntering on in black S E T L I ST joined by rapper Kano, suit and tie, Albarn who darts about the stage initially seems to have ►Lonely Press Play with Damon in a boyish a subdued evening in ►Everyday Robots sparring match. But hit of mind. But launching into ►Tomorrow Comes Today the night is ‘Mr Tembo’, the cantering piano of ►History Song an existential take on ‘Lonely Press Play’, he’s on ►Hollow Ponds ‘Nellie The Elephant’ that buoyant form, grinning ►Slow Country reads like a metaphor and bending down into ►Kids With Guns for the winding journey the crowd. A string ►3 Changes of Damon’s career so quartet side of stage gives ►You And Me ►Photographs (You far. He’s left alone at ‘Everyday Robots’ – the Are Taking Now) the piano once more for new album’s title track, ►Kingdom Of Doom eye-moistening set closer a melancholy rumination ►Poison ‘This Is A Low’. So opens a on humanity in the ►Hostiles new phase for this musical internet age – an agitated ►El Mañana polymath. Damon Albarn: bent, recalling minimalist ►The History Of A Cheating Heart uncluttered, unadorned, composer Steve Reich. ►Out Of Time and still Gorillaz’s ‘Tomorrow ►All Your Life utterly Comes Today’ and The ►Clint Eastwood brilliant. Good, The Bad & The ►Mr Tembo Queen’s ‘History Song’ ■ JeNNy ►Heavy Seas ►This Is A Low continue a set that draws sTeveNs
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Leamington spa’s finest (only?) psych-garage duo coves continue to improve their live shows. Beck Wood and John ridgard once seemed slightly in awe of their own songs. But now they – and the drummer and bassist who’ve since joined them – have us in the palms of their hands. ‘Beatings’ is a highlight, a wail of white-noise guitar and fuzz bass, with Wood a swirling shadow before bleaching bright lights, singing “my heart stops beating for you” like a modern-day Nico. ‘No Ladder’ is just as good, urgent and full of life. They’re twice the band they were a year ago. it’s exciting to think where they might be in another 12 months’ time. ■ aNDy WeLcH
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Eminem
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Eminem is set to headline Wembley Stadium in July. The one-of gig is reported to have originally been planned for Hyde Park, but the Detroit rapper and his team claim that the royal family raised objections to any such performance. Whether or not that’s true, what’s certain is that Eminem will become the frst rapper ever to headline the iconic venue, as he follows up last year’s Reading & Leeds headline sets. ► DAT E S London Wembley Stadium (July 11) ► S U P P O RT ACTS TBC ► P R I C E £75 ► O N SA L E now ► F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £7.50 booking fee
BOOKING NOW The hottest new tickets on sale this week
Trash Talk The Sacramento hardcore group comprising Lee Spielman (vocals), Garrett Stevenson (guitar), Spencer Pollard (bass and vocals) and Devan Bentley (drums) return to the UK in the summer to promote their new album ‘No Peace’, the follow-up to 2012’s ‘119’.
How are you feeling about getting back on the road? Garrett Stevenson: “We’re hyped to get back on the road and try some new songs out. We have a show coming up for a few friends to test some stuf out on and see how it goes over. Choosing songs to play with us is always hella difcult.”
Legendary hip-hop producer Alchemist provides the beat for two songs on ‘No Peace’. How did that come about? “He’s been coming out to shows and supporting what we’ve been doing for a while now so it was sick to fnally work on a project together. I’m a huge fan of that dude’s music. We cut a few instrumentals when recording ‘No Peace’ that I wanted to edit. A few weeks later we were in Al’s studio vibing out.”
Your shows are renowned for being brutal onslaughts. How should your fans prepare? “Prepare to see a show experience where the energy
onstage matches that in the crowd. At Trash Talk shows, everyone gets involved. For those 40 minutes, our stage is your stage. No guitar solos or any funny shit, just energy and chaos.”
► ► DAT E S
Stoke-on-Trent Sugarmill (July 7), Leicester The Scholar (8), Newport Le Pub (9), Coventry Kasbah (10) ► OT h E R ACTS TBC ► P R I C E £9; Newport £10; Coventry £9.50 ► O N SA L E now ► F R O M NME.COM/tickets with 95p–£1 booking fee
Ne w Mu s ical e x pre s s | 1 7 May 20 1 4
GETTy
Jungle Get a glimpse of the enigmatic Jungle as T, J and the rest of the collective travel around the UK after what should be a triumphant festival season. The Londonbased, XL-signed futuristic funk crew recently dropped new single ‘Busy Earnin’’, fully backing up claims made earlier this year that they are one of 2014’s most exciting new acts. ► DAT E S Leeds Metropolitan University (October 23), Manchester The Ritz (24), Glasgow The Arches (25), Birmingham The Library At The Institute (27), Cambridge The Junction (28), London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (30), Brighton Concorde 2 (November 3), Bristol Anson Rooms (4) ► S U P P O RT ACTS TBC ► P R I C E £12.50; London £14.50 ► O N SA L E now ► F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £1.25–£2.20 booking fee; Glasgow from ticketmaster. co.uk with £2.25 booking fee
UK GIG LISTINGS AND TICKETS AT NME.COM/TICKETS TOUR NEWS
Television ‘Marquee Moon’ is now considered one of the greatest albums of all time (we voted it the 29th best record ever in our list last year). On its US release in 1977, the New York band’s debut album wasn’t met with quite the same positive reaction. The legendary post-punk group have since played the album in full at special shows like those held in the UK last year. Tom Verlaine, Billy Ficca, Fred Smith and Jimmy Rip will host another night recreating ‘Marquee Moon’ in London this summer. ► DAT E S London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (July 27) ► S U P P O RT ACTS TBC ► P R I C E £27.50–£32.50 ► O N SA L E now ► F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £2.75–£3.25 booking fee
“It’s a Little Dragon record but it’s deeper, darker,” Yukimi Nagano told NME earlier this year of new album ‘Nabuma Rubberband’. Their fourth record follows collaborations with Gorillaz, Dave Sitek and SBTRKT, and occupies far more sophisticated territory than before. Find out how the Swedish band have evolved as they play highlights from the new album and their back catalogue when they return to the UK in November. ► DAT E S Brighton Corn Exchange (November 17),
Eminem
Despite announcing a hiatus last year, fuzzy San Francisco band Thee Oh Sees are set to tour with a new line-up: longtime leader John Dwyer plus Timothy Hellman on bass and Nick Murray on drums. Their only UK date so far is at ATP’s Jabberwocky 2014 at the Excel Centre in London on August 15–16.
FESTIvAL NEWS Bestival
Birmingham The Institute (18), Bristol O2 Academy (19), Leeds Metropolitan University (21), Manchester Albert Hall (22), Glasgow O2 ABC (23), London O2 Academy Brixton (27), Oxford O2 Academy (29) ►S U P P O RT ACTS TBC ►P R I C E £19.50; London £23.50 ►O N SA L E now ►F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £1.95–£2.35 booking fee; Glasgow TBC
The Antlers Peter Silberman, Michael Lerner and Darby Cicci are preparing to release their ffth studio album, ‘Familiars’. “It’s been far too long. We’ve missed you,” wrote the band to their fans. Now the
Brooklyn trio are ofering UK fans the chance to reconnect with them as they bring the new album to cities across England and Scotland this autumn. ►DAT E S Brighton The Old Market (October 22), Birmingham The Oobleck (23), London Hackney Empire (24), Bristol Trinity (27), Manchester The Ritz (31), Glasgow Oran Mor (November 1), Leeds Belgrave Music Hall (2) ►S U P P O RT ACTS TBC ►P R I C E £13; Birmingham £10; London £20.85; Leeds and Glasgow TBC ►O N SA L E now ►F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £1–£1.56 booking fee; Manchester from ticketmaster. co.uk with £2 booking fee;
London from songkick.com with booking fee TBC; Leeds and Glasgow TBC
Swim Deep The quartet return to their Birmingham roots for a special one-of gig as they take a break from writing new material. They’ll open new venue The Oobleck with help from fellow local lads Juice and Brighton’s Weezer enthusiasts, The Magic Gang. ►DAT E S Birmingham The Oobleck (May 24) ►S U P P O RT ACTS The Magic Gang, Juice ►P R I C E £15 ►O N SA L E now ►F R O M NME.COM/tickets with £1.50 booking fee
1 7 M ay 2 01 4 | Ne w M u s ical ex pre s s
Wolf Alice, Tune-Yards, Fat White Family and Childhood (right) are among the latest acts to be added to this year’s Bestival line-up at the Isle Of Wight’s Robin Hill Country Park on September 4–7. Tickets are on sale now from NME.COM/ tickets.
Beacons The North Yorkshire festival will welcome British Sea Power, DZ Deathrays, Jaws and more to Skipton’s Heslaker Farm on August 7–10. Action Bronson, Cate Le Bon and The Fall will also play. Tickets are on sale now from NME.COM/tickets.
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Little Dragon
Thee Oh Sees
their own dates in more intimate settings. Catch them play songs from their debut album at fve shows this week, starting in Oxford. ►dATES Oxford O2 Academy 2 (May 14), London The Lexington (15), Liverpool The Shipping Forecast (17), Birmingham Sunflower Lounge (19), Edinburgh Sneaky Pete’s (20) ►TICKETS £6; Edinburgh £6.50; London £8 from NME.COM/ tickets with 60p–£1.25 booking fee
Teleman
GOING OUT Everything worth leaving the house for this week
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recreate the minimalist techno of that record in their home city of Birmingham as well as London and Brighton. ►dATES London Oval Space (May 15), Birmingham Hare & Hounds (16), Brighton Coalition (17) ►TICKETS £10; London £15 from NME.COM/tickets with £1–£3.15 booking fee
Carl Barât & The Jackals The world’s attention may be on the reunion of The Libertines at the moment, but before their eagerly awaited return at Hyde Park on July 5, the band’s co-frontman Carl Barât will be launching a brand new band. After auditioning members earlier this year, the singer will show of the new group, and a host of new songs, at a one-of date in London. ►dATES London XOYO (May 15) ►TICKETS £15 from NME.COM/tickets with £1.95 booking fee
Action Bronson The New York rapper and chef is set to release his frst studio album since signing to a major label this year, following two full-length releases in 2011, a handful of mixtapes and last year’s ‘Saaab Stories’ EP. Get
a sneak preview of some of the new tracks he’s been cooking up as he visits three cities in the UK this week. ►dATES Bristol O2 Academy (May 14), Birmingham O2 Academy 2 (16), London The Forum (17) ►TICKETS £16.50; London
FIVE TO SEE FOR FREE ROLLING PAPERS
1. Unbleached Sessions The Queen Of Hoxton, London
2. Spit Shake Sisters The Old Blue Last, London
Zig-Zag presents a battle of the bands. ►May 15, 7pm
£19.50 from NME.COM/tickets with £1.65–£1.95 booking fee
Factory Floor The London dance trio have been in America recently, promoting their acclaimed 2013 self-titled debut album. Now back on home turf, they’ll
drowners Welshman Matt Hitt and his New York-based band will support Peace on the frst half of their mammoth tour later this month. The quartet are getting warmed up for that lengthy stint with some of
Former members of noughties indie alsorans Pete & The Pirates return with a sweet and chipper indie-pop sound that picks up where their previous group left of. Brothers Thomas and Jonny Sanders and Pete Cattermoul have been working with ex-Suede guitarist and producer Bernard Butler on brand new material, and will release their frst LP under their new alias later this month. ►dATES Birmingham Hare & Hounds (May 14), Reading Sub 89 (15), Bristol The Fleece (16), Southampton Lennon’s (17), Cambridge Portland Arms (18), London Islington Assembly Hall (20) ►TICKETS £8; London £10 from NME.COM/tickets with 80p–£2.65 booking fee; Southampton sold out
Hiss Golden Messenger US folk-rock duo MC Taylor and Scott Hirsch
Thrills don’t come cheaper than this 3. Thumpers Rough Trade East, London
4. July Talk The Old Blue Last, London
Trio plug single ‘Jesus Was A Homewrecker’.
Hotly tipped London group preview debut album ‘Galore’.
Fiery blues-rock Canadians make their first trip to the UK.
►May 16, 8.30pm
►May 19, 7pm
►May 27, 8pm
5. Real Lies A Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds Soulful pop from the London trio. ►May 29, 8pm
Ne w Mu sical ex pre s s | 1 7 May 2 0 14
See Ezra Furman for free in Oxford
Action Bronson
STuART LEECH, dANIEL TOPETE, POONEH gHANA, gETTY
Eyedress Filipino artist Idris Vicuña played his frst UK gigs back in February. This week he’s heading back out from his Manila home for festival season. On record he might be all about electronic slow jams and ethereal beats but there’s defnitely more of a hip-hop infuence to his live show. He’ll fll the Shacklewell Arms with the sounds of ‘Nature Trips’, ‘Biolumine’ and more as he gears up for a busy summer. ►dATES London Shacklewell Arms (May 14) ►TICKETS £7.50 from NME. COM/tickets with £2.40 booking fee
Relive Pulp’s reunion tour of 2011 on Sky Arts
STAYING IN The best music on TV, radio and online this week
Pulp
month, and this week they’ll join John Kennedy to talk about the making of the record, including working with Bright Eyes collaborator Mike Mogis. ►LISTEN XFM, 10pm, May 14
Pulp Live
As anticipation builds for Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And Supermarkets, relive the joy of the Shefeld band’s live shows with this concert flm. Jarvis Cocker and the group run through hits including ‘Disco 2000’ and ‘Common People’ at Brixton Academy during their 2011 reunion stint. ►WATCH Sky Arts, 10.30pm, May 16
Coldplay Sky Arts Celebrate the release of Coldplay’s sixth album ‘Ghost Stories’ with a night of programmes about the band. Watch them perform tracks from their back catalogue live in Toronto on How We Saw The World Pt 1 and learn the secrets behind the new record in the documentary Coldplay: Ghost Stories. ►WATCH Sky Arts, 5:30pm, May 19
Wolf Alice The Evening Show with Danielle Perry The north London trio pay another visit to the XFM studios to look
THINGS WE LIKE
First Aid Kit
Kelis
Later Live… With Jools Holland Kelis promotes her latest album ‘Food’ with an appearance on Jools Holland’s show. Chrissie Hynde and Ray Lamontagne also perform. ►WATCH BBC Two, 10pm, May 20
Blondie The Birth Of Blondie This year marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic New York band. Debbie Harry and Chris Stein take over Radio 2 for an hour to reminisce on their beginnings in 1970s New York. ►LISTEN BBC Radio 2, 10pm, May 14
This week’s objects of desire
BOOK Barbed Wire Kisses: The Jesus And Mary Chain Story A new book charting the band’s fractious history. ►BUY £12.99, book depository.com
Kelis
back on some of the songs that helped build their reputation as one of the most exciting new bands in the UK. They’ll play ‘Bros’ and ‘Flufy’ in session over two nights this week. ►LISTEN XFM, 7pm, May 19–20
X-Posure Klara and Johanna Söderberg return with their third album ‘Stay Gold’ next
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(aka the wonderfully named Hiss Golden Messenger) have been playing together for almost 20 years, amassing a legion of fans that includes a certain David Bowie, whose personal taste (Pixies, Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth) has been pretty bang on over the years. Find out what prompted the Thin White Duke to describe them as “like an eerie yellowing photograph” as they bring their fourth studio album ‘Haw’ across the Atlantic later this month. ►dATES Leeds Brudenell Social Club (May 17), Manchester Soup Kitchen (18), London Borderline (19) ►TICKETS Leeds £8; Manchester £9; London £12.50 from NME.COM/tickets with 80p–£1.25 booking fee
DVD He Wasn’t Just The Fifth Member Of Joy Division: A Film About Martin Hannett doc on the Joy division producer. ►BUY £15.99, piccadilly records.com
BOOK There Goes Gravity: A Life In Rock And Roll Journalist Lisa Robinson recalls encounters with The Clash, Michael Jackson and Lou Reed. ►BUY £16.88, amazon.co.uk
17 May 20 14 | N ew M u s ical ex pres s
REISSUE Definitely Maybe Oasis’ debut is reissued as a three-Cd, two-LP boxset, which also features a book, print, tote bag and more. ►BUY £109.99, amazon.co.uk
From cult classics to forgotten gems, artists pick the one album they consider essential listening
Ellie Rowsell Wolf Alice on...
2 Jacques Dutronc Jacques Dutronc 46
“This album is what cool sounds like. If I need a pick-me-up, I put this on. It’s intelligent while staying fun and very sexy. One day I will learn French as I feel I can’t truly appreciate his work not knowing what these songs actually mean. I’m a self-conscious dancer but this makes me forget that I have two left feet. The world needs more Jacques Dutroncs.”
Mario Cuomo The Orwells on...
Pete Doherty The Libertines on...
1 Love Four Sail “Everyone always forgets about this album because it’s so difcult to fnd. Or at least it was, before the internet came along. But when your life is ’60s garage music, even for fve minutes, it’s impossible to not fall for Love. I remember I used to get called a plastic mod on the nightbus home because I looked like [’70s Arsenal legend] Charlie George, but you’ve got to stand up for yourself, and sometimes the only way to do that is to let the soul and swagger and passion of something – and for me it was ‘Four Sail’ – reappear and eke out of you. It’s a beautiful, majestic
Elektra, 1969
record. Arthur Lee as a singer had quite a gentle, almost twee voice sometimes, but it was unashamed. And when he said, ‘Everything is gonna be alright’, fuck it, you actually believed him, in this dark and cynical world. That look and that attitude… he’s actually saying, ‘Hey man, you gotta love each other.’ I’m always banging on about ‘Your Friend And Mine – Neil’s Song’ from it, but there’s actually another tune, ‘Dream’, that goes (sings), ‘I just got up from a dream/ I dreamed that I was running…’ which is really good. ‘Always See Your Face’, ‘I’m With You’, ‘August’, ‘Robert Montgomery’, ‘Singing Cowboy’ are all on it too… Fuck, the whole thing is unbelievable!” Ne w M u sical e xpres s | 17 M ay 2 0 14
3 Kendrick Lamar Section.80 Top Dawg Entertainment, 2011
“He’s the saviour of modern rap music, and this is why. His first, ‘Overly Dedicated’, is good, but ‘Section.80’ steals it. It’s just good to see someone so talented with such good songs can finally get to the masses. He really deserves it; he came from a shithole and overcame so much to make this record. When someone does that it makes it more interesting. I absolutely love this record.”
INTERVIEWS: MATT WILKINSON, KEVIN EG PERRY, BARRY NICOLSON, CIAN TRAYNOR, LEONIE COOPER, ANDY WELCH, AL HORNER, LUCY JONES, SOPHIE COLETTA, RHIAN DALY PHOTO: STEVE COOK
Disques Vogue, 1968
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BE F oR E YoU D IE
St Vincent on...
4 John Coltrane A Love Supreme Impulse!, 1965 “It’s a very deep record – it’s a religious experience hearing it for the first time. It is on repeated listens too, but especially on the first time. I was 15 and my aunt and uncle – who are a jazz duo called Jack & Patty – invited me to California to be their apprentice, their roadie, for a couple of gigs they were doing. They did this ceremony
Dave Sitek TV On The Radio on...
where they turned of the lights and lit candles and put on Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’. I’d never really listened to jazz before – and this was before jazz in Starbucks, jazz as the soundtrack to lattes and whatever. It moved me to tears. I revisit it a lot actually. It’s such a heartbreaking record. There’s so much longing in it and so much pain.”
7 Don Cherry & Ed Blackwell El Corazón ECM, 1982 “It’s the record I listen to the most. It’s just such a wide-open, spectral record. To me the best music can transport you spiritually, take you to a wild, open place. I mean, this record is like direct access to a whole other experience. It can make you forget that we’re living in 2000-and-whatever-the-fuck and give you a more universal, longer view of things.”
Carl Barât The Libertines on...
“It’s impassioned, political, ageless. Bobby Gillespie first put me on to them, then took me to see them. We went backstage and asked for Arthur Lee afterwards. He was telling me about prison in LA with Richard Ramirez and Charlie Manson, shit like that. And back in the day with Hendrix. He had some stories! He was a proper legend in all senses of the word, but what’s really important about Love is that they were so punk, even though they don’t sound it now. ‘They’re locking him up today/They’re throwing away the key’ [from ‘The Red Telephone’] is daring and confident. It’s about love, but there are Rage Against The Machine vibes in there lyrically. ‘Alone Again Or’ is my favourite. I can play it on the guitar, just about! It’s got that Latin American vibe and that intro. Perfect.”
8 Nirvana In Utero Geffen, 1993
“‘Nevermind’ is the first one you hear but then you hear ‘Bleach’, ‘Incesticide’, and ‘In Utero’. And ‘In Utero’ still sounds fresh. It’s the closest vision of how the band was supposed to sound. Listening to ‘Radio Friendly Unit Shifter’ for the first time, I remember thinking, ‘How the fuck did they create this noise?’”
Grimes on...
9 OutKast Stankonia LaFace, 2000 “I really enjoyed OutKast when I was a kid, I don’t know why. Obviously back then I wasn’t like, ‘Oh, the production’s amazing’ or anything; it’s just that the whole record is totally solid. ‘Bombs Over Baghdad’ is pretty sweet; it’s like a rap/drum’n’bass sound.”
Courtney Barnett on...
6 Lou Reed Transformer RCA, 1972 “It’s the best record in the world. Every time I listen to it I hear something new and I feel diferent feelings. It just sounds so live and in-themoment – it feels like they’re just fucking around in the studio. I’ve never really looked into how the record was made, so I don’t know if that’s what it is – maybe it’s not. Someone played it to me
Tom Hudson Pulled Apart By Horses on...
Sean Lennon on...
10 Pink Floyd A Saucerful Of Secrets EMI, 1968 late at night in a bar I used to work at after closing time. It was like, ‘Let’s go home’, and I was like, ‘No, let’s sit down and listen to the rest of the album!’” 17 May 2 01 4 | Ne w M u s ica l e xpre s s
“Pink Floyd are me and [bandmate and partner] Charlotte Kemp Muhl’s joint favourite band. This album is them on the cusp of discovering the sound they went on to with [1971 album ‘Meddle’ track] ‘Echoes’, and you can hear Syd Barrett peaking as a songwriter. It’s the bridge between those two worlds. An incredible record.”
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5 Love Forever Changes Elektra, 1967
101 A LBUM S TO HE A R B EF ORE YOU DI E
Maxim ‘Panda’ Barron Toy on...
11 The Space Lady The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits Night School, 2013
“The Space Lady, Suzy Soundz, performed on the streets of San Francisco with just a Casio. Her voice grabs you, and her take on songs is really unique. They are mostly covers, but you wouldn’t know it. ‘Synthesize Me’ and ‘Slapback Boomerang’ are originals. She’s the epitome of an outsider artist. One story is that she and her husband tore up their ID cards and lived in a cave as he was a draft dodger. She also wears a helmet with wings on it.”
Billy Corgan Smashing Pumpkins on...
15 Black Sabbath Master Of Reality
Merrill Garbus Tune-Yards on...
13 The Beatles Revolver
Vertigo, 1971
“This changed the way I thought when I was eight years old. I’d picked it up from my uncle. The album looked so cool with its dark, evil colour and purple writing. I put it on and listened to its stupid Ozzy intro and it sounded so heavy. OK, the lyrics are pretty hit and miss. ‘Sweet Leaf’ is their bad ode to pot and never has a man rhymed ‘insane’ with ‘brain’ so many times. But the music is amazing. It spawned grunge. Unfortunately. A lot of bands wouldn’t admit to its influence, I guess because of the satanic connection.”
Parlophone, 1966
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“This is the bible of popular music as we know it. There are so many layers in there, which is what I want from the songs we put into the world: it doesn’t get old because there’s always something new to discover. I think it was one of their most daring moments, putting together ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and these other very experimental attempts at trying on diferent personas. It ends up being a variety show of an album full of dips, turns, tempos and moods but there’s a balance of songwriting too. It’s an album I listened to as a little kid with my parents’ huge ’70s headphones and the sound just dances: all the guitar tones, the drum tones; everything is so dynamic. It’s literally fun for the ears.”
Harry Koisser Peace on...
14 The Shaggs Philosophy Of The World Third World, 1969
Isaiah Radke Radkey on...
12 Led Zeppelin IV Atlantic, 1971 “Led Zeppelin are the best, and everyone should know that. If you ever truly want to learn how to play rock’n’roll, just start at the beginning. Everyone wants to write an album this brilliant. As soon as the needle touches the vinyl you hear that whatever the hell that sound is start going and then, boom, you’re getting fucked in the face in the best way. All of the songs are amazing. Rifs for days, man. You’ll never be fully alive until you listen to this record. This album is a stone groove, man.”
“None of them were spectacular at playing their instruments but they did it anyway, their own way. Kind of. It’s a really exciting listen, and quite a remarkable record. The bottom line is that there’s something very innocent and equally disturbing about it. When I listened to the track ‘Why Do I Feel?’ for the frst time, I genuinely felt like my brain was being torn into three or four pieces. In the best way. I’m not a keen historian so it would be wrong for me to pretend I know too much about them, but from what I gather from the music and a conversation with a cabbie is that it’s very intentional music that’s channelled in a totally unorthodox way, which results in something that to most would be the sound of chaos. Whatever it is, I dig it. It’s very rare that a record makes you rethink Ne w M u sicAl e xpres s | 17 M AY 2 0 14
everything you know. It made me re-evaluate structure, melody and rhythm in music as well as perfection and imperfection in everything. It’s like what does it take to redefne anything? What is anything? Where’s the line? I don’t know, I’m in tears. Listen to The Shaggs.”
Sam Fryer Palma Violets on...
16 Roland S Howard Teenage Snuff Film
Matt Wood Telegram on...
18 Brian Eno Here Come The Warm Jets Island, 1974
Cooking Vinyl, 2000
“It’s the kind of record that when you hear it for the first time you immediately feel something has been stolen from you. Its constant sexual power and groove will grab you by the genitals and throw you into the shower. It confuses me as to how this album isn’t talked about more often. The lyrical balance between humour and depth is what makes it such a great rock’n’roll record. ‘You’re bad for me like cigarettes, but I haven’t sucked enough of you yet’ ignites the onslaught in the opening track, ‘Dead
Radio’. And the track ‘Autoluminescent’ really proves his guitar genius; calm and gentle but ferociously tense. ‘Teenage Snuf Film’ is a real nightcrawler record and romantically paints a picture in my head of the early-’80s Berlin scene and the memory of The Birthday Party. Roland died a decade after its release and such talent should never be forgotten. A real masterpiece.”
“I first heard this in my mid-teens, and it’s stayed with me ever since. This was his first solo foray after Roxy Music. Only recently have I realised how venomous Eno is towards his ex-bandmate Bryan Ferry; each song is veiled in oblique wordplay. He sounds potent, lost, hateful and creative.”
19 Minutemen Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat SST, 1983
“To say that Minutemen influenced me, and an entire population of others, is like saying the Civil War had ‘some efect’ on the slave trade. The only other three-piece band to carve out such a distinctive path would be The Wipers, about whom you limeys know way too little for me to help you.”
DAVID EDWARDS, ANDY WILLSHER, DAN DENNISON, JENN FIVE
Gary Jarman The Cribs on...
17 Huggy Bear Taking The Rough With The Smooch
Wiiija, 1993
“I had this on cassette, and I’d listen to it in the car every single day en route to the college music course that I would eventually drop out of to start touring with The Cribs. It’s the most important record in the world. It made college seem futile, I wanted to forget everything I knew, everything I had learned, everything they were teaching me there. As Jo from Huggy Bear would say, ‘I know hundreds of chords, I made them all up.’ And no-one could ever teach you how to do what these guys, my new heroes, could do.
No-one can teach you how to feel, and this is a record that forces you to feel something; it won’t allow for apathy or indiference. Plus it sounded like a lot of fucking fun. I can’t describe the music or the songs. This is a good thing. It’s an album of friction, of rubbing the impossible to burst. It’s punk as fuck and tender and poetic. It’s incendiary as hell and more beautiful than Barbie. It’s a manifesto and it’s a love letter. It’s sexual confusion and hardcore liberation. It’s late-night drunken foggy romance and clear-minded, sharp-asa-tack proselytising. And you’ll either love it and be converted, or you’ll fucking hate it. And that is why it remains so important.” 1 7 M AY 20 14 | N ew Mu s icAl e xp re s s
J Mascis Dinosaur Jr on...
20 Led Zeppelin Houses Of The Holy Atlantic, 1973 “When I was little, my brother had this record. I thought they were the best band ever. And John Bonham [late Led Zep drummer] was my rock idol. He was kinda crazed. The wildest rock’n’roll thing I’ve ever done was when I threw my guitar into the audience one time and cracked a guy’s head open. That was pretty wild.”
49
Steve Albini on...
Chuck D Public Enemy on...
23 The O’Jays Travelin’ At The Speed Of Thought Philadelphia International, 1977
Simon Neil Biffy Clyro on...
21 Red House Painters Rollercoaster
“This was the first album I ever bought. I was a big O’Jays fan. I always liked the way their vocals overlapped and intertwined with each other. Eddie Levert and Walter Williams are the greatest singers of all time in my book.”
4AD, 1993
50
“It’s a beautifully heartbreaking record that taught me a lot about music. Having grown up listening to a lot of extreme stuf like Slayer and Pantera, to hear something so gentle but so intense opened my eyes to the fact that music doesn’t have to be brutal to take you somewhere heavy. I discovered the album through my lovely friend Craig B from Aereogramme. He used to make me these mixtapes. As a 17, 18-yearold kid, this was a world of music that I didn’t know existed, and I can never thank him enough for introducing me to it. As for the
efect it had on me, it certainly changed how I write songs. After listening to this record I wrote ‘Scary Mary’ for our frst album, which was one of my very frst ‘quiet’ songs. Before I probably would have tried to drown it in distortion, but Red House Painters made me realise the value of space and clarity. It changed how I approached lyrics, too. It made me unafraid to tackle the tough stuf, and expose myself in a certain way. [The band’s singer] Mark Kozelek’s lyrics are so obviously autobiographical, and that really appealed to me. He helped realise what was important to me as a songwriter. If it hadn’t been for them I’d probably still be singing about fucking warzones and dragons.”
Dave Grohl Foo Fighters on...
24 Van Morrison Astral Weeks Warner Bros, 1968
“It feels like it’s always been with me, like it was playing when I was born. I remember when naming Twin Shadow I wanted to pay homage to Van. Astral this, Astral that. I’m glad that feeling died of and I can just do my respect thing in moments like this. The beauty of this record is in its freedom, its ability to stretch itself around melody and rhythm in a supernatural way.”
Trugoy The Dove De La Soul on...
22 The B-52’s The B-52’s Island, 1979 “This was the first thing to really grab me. Those guitars! Two strings! How cool! Those drums! Slap slap slap slap! Dead easy! The women looked like they were from outer space and everything was linked in – the sleeves, the sound, the clothes, the iconography, the logo, everything. I think when you’re a kid, that’s what you’re after, a real unified feel to a band, and that’s what The B-52’s ofered. Their songs were
Twin Shadow on...
25 Run-DMC Run-DMC 4th & Broadway, 1984
so easy to learn, they got me into playing really easily. This was definitely the first thing after Kiss or Rush that totally absorbed me like that.” Ne w M u sical e xpres s | 17 M ay 2 0 14
“Although there was hip-hop before RunDMC, they were one of those bands where it’s like, ‘Wow, you see those same people on the corner.’ I didn’t see Grandmaster Flash on the corner every day with the leather and the spikes and all, but Run-DMC, you saw them every day in their Adidas. So to see somebody in your neighbourhood on TV, doing hip-hop that big, was impressive.”
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BEF oRE YoU DI E
Gus Unger-Hamilton Alt-J on... Romy Madley Croft The xx on...
26 Chromatics Night Drive Italians Do It Better, 2007 “I’m always putting this on. It came out on Italians Do It Better, but it’s not just Italo disco. There’s guitar, then more disco beats, then it jumps back to Italo disco – it’s deliberately all over the place. It’s something I can put on at any time and it’s always got that really nice, sad, transporting sound to it.”
30 The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat Verve, 1968 “I first came across it when my housemate gave me a whole load of music from his hard drive and I was plodding through it all while we were recording in London. I was listening to all the Velvet Underground albums, but this was the one that really stuck out for me: it starts of with the title track, which is a great song, then goes into ‘The Gift’, which is eight minutes of John Cale reading Lou Reed’s short story while the band just jam over it. ‘Sister Ray’ is 17 minutes
long, and sometimes I like putting it on jukeboxes in bars just to amuse myself, but it really is incredible: it’s a huge piece of music that’s incredibly complex and interesting. The album as a whole has got a hugely varied sound on it, which I really like – I struggle with things that sound similar all the way through, and this album is very avant garde, very experimental, and it manages to hold your interest. It marks a high point in experimental rock music, but it’s still extremely listenable. More than anything else, it’s really, really good fun.”
Kode9 on...
27 Yellow Magic Orchestra BGM A&M, 1981
Keith Richards The Rolling Stones on...
“Bob showed us all in the ’60s a new approach, new ways of writing songs. He came from a folk tradition, which had much looser possibilities, and he showed you that rock’n’roll didn’t have to be quite so restricted by that verse-chorus-verse formula. We all pushed each other on in those days. Bob’s a nasty little bugger. I remember him saying to me, ‘I could have written ‘…Satisfaction’, Keith, but you couldn’t have written ‘Desolation Row’.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re right there, Bob!’”
Andy Falkous Future Of The Left on...
ED MILES, ANDY FORD, DEREk BREMNER, TOM MARTIN, TOM OxLEY
28 Kong Snake Magnet Brew, 2009 “Anyone who likes loud, dirty music that their parents will hate, this is the one. The lazy comparisons would be to Fugazi and Shellac – lots of space and it’s all kind of undercut with a very sinister, genuinely frightening centre. Jon-Lee, the singer, did the artwork for our first record, ‘Curses’.”
Lee Spielman Trash Talk on...
29 Cro-Mags The Age Of Quarrel GWR, 1986 “Nothing was the same after I found this record. It was everything from the cover art to the crushing rifs to the current topics being covered in the lyrics. The music is a fucking atomic explosion. This record belongs up there with the classics by Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and Circle Jerks. Thank me later.”
Action Bronson on...
32 Santana Abraxas CBS, 1970 “I’m a fan of all genres. I listen to a lot of Spanish music, prog rock, Metallica – you name it. Growing up, my father was a guitarist in a band and he first played this to me in the car while driving to Bear Mountain, a New York state park. I can remember I was about nine and ‘Black Magic Woman’ was the first song I ever fell in love with. I love listening to the album’s guitar 17 May 2 01 4 | Ne w M u s ica l e xpre s s
and jungle rhythms and beautiful drums and diferent percussions. I can’t get enough of psychedelic shit like that! My favourite track is the slow-burning instrumental ‘Samba Pa Ti’, but to be honest, you need to play the whole thing to appreciate how amazing and versatile it sounds.”
51
31 Bob Dylan Blonde On Blonde Columbia, 1966
“They’re the Japanese band Ryuichi Sakamoto was in during the early ’80s. What they’re doing with synths is a precursor to what Fatima Al-Qadiri is doing now. They were interested in mixing traditional Japanese melodies with synthesizers and proto-techno.”
Kwes on...
36 J Dilla Donuts Stones Throw, 2006 “I could go a lot further into what I have picked up from this record – the hidden messages and meanings – but I’d rather you just listen to it, enjoy it and marvel at how heartfelt and groundbreaking it is. J Dilla is a massive inspiration to me, and many others, particularly this record, and I thoroughly recommend it. I’m still unpacking it now, eight years after its release.”
52 Matt Helders Arctic Monkeys on...
Alex Turner Arctic Monkeys on...
Jamie Cook Arctic Monkeys on...
33 Dr Dre 2001
34 Michael Chapman Rainmaker
35 Captain Beyond Captain Beyond
Harvest, 1969
Capricorn, 1972
Aftermath, 1999
“The first time I heard it I was so intrigued – it was just completely diferent. I see the importance of being able to relate to music, and I think that’s something that we’ve often relied on as a band. People listen to our songs and think, ‘Yeah, I know what it’s like to be kicked out of a club.’ But I also love the idea of learning about something that’s foreign to you through music, listening to a record and having to find out what certain words mean, those slang words that when you find out what they mean make it all make sense. It also had huge singles like ‘Forgot About Dre’ and ‘The Next Episode’, which you heard everywhere when they came out. That doesn’t really happen any more, in any genre.”
“When I’m writing I have this thing where I’ll get ‘reset’ by a new song, or by some song I haven’t heard before. When it happens it gives you a physical feeling, like you can feel a tingle run down your back. If I get that when I hear a song I think, ‘Shit! I’m not even close to that.’ Then you build it up again, you think you’re getting somewhere and then something will blow your mind again. That’s what happened to me when I heard the Michael Chapman records ‘Rainmaker’ and ‘Fully Qualified Survivor’. On ‘Rainmaker’ there’s a song called ‘You Say’ that had that efect on me. It happens all the time.”
“There’s a prog band called Captain Beyond who released three albums in the ’70s, and this self-titled one was their first. It’s a great album, rif-strong from beginning to end. They formed in California at the beginning of the ’70s and they’re a really great band. This record doesn’t really stop. I’ve tried to look up how they recorded it because it sounds like it’s a massive jam. It’s like they’ve decided to not stop until they drop. It’s a good one to play loud.”
Ne w Mu s icAl e xpres s | 1 7 MAY 201 4
Jack Steadman Bombay Bicycle Club on...
37 Fela Kuti Shuffering And Shmiling Barclay, 1978 “This is great when you’ve got people round for a party and it’s getting into the early hours of the morning. I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t instantly fallen in love with it whenever I’ve put it on. Deep down I think everyone loves a really funky, groovy song and this album has all these huge, catchy, infectious melodies.”
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BE F oR E YoU D IE
Bret Easton Ellis author on...
38 The National Boxer Beggars Banquet, 2007
Steven Tyler Aerosmith on...
40 The Byrds Fifth Dimension CBS, 1966 “[Roger] McGuinn’s 12-string said it all – the songs just fly. Theirs was a mixture of The Beatles, The Everly Brothers and some kind of mutant country sound. ‘Eight Miles High’ and ‘Mr Spaceman’ were a major influence on me.”
was incredibly reassuring in many, many ways. It had a bleakness to it, but also a kind of hope to it, the constant soundtrack. I can’t listen to it any more. It just takes me back to that period.”
Lizzo on...
41 Lauryn Hill The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill Columbia, 1998 “It’s flawless, from the rasta cry intro of ‘Lost Ones’ to the heartwrenching ‘When It Hurts So Bad’. No-one’s created anything close to the cohesion and the timelessness of the songs. She has a swagger like Biggie coupled with the message and wisdom of a poet.”
Jeffrey Lewis on...
42 The Holy Modal Rounders The Holy Modal Rounders Prestige, 1964 Faris Badwan The Horrors on...
39 T2 It’ll All Work Out In Boomland
“It’s in the 1960s folk-revival genre, but there’s something diferent about it. Every song, poignant or goofy, has a special soul to it, a writhing spirit rarely captured alive in the wild.”
ED MIlES, JENN FIvE, EYEvINE
Decca, 1970
“I really love the T2 album ‘It’ll All Work Out In Boomland’. Their drummer Peter Dunton was in a lot of good bands in the ’60s and ’70s, like [psychedelic two-piece] Neon Pearl and Please [a psych band formed in London in 1968 after Neon Pearl disbanded] and a few other things, but I think this record is probably the most infuential record when it comes to heavy and progressive rock of that time. It’s an incredible example of how to balance diferent dynamics on an album. The singing is
all done quite softly, and then the rifs are just very, very heavy. It’s defnitely one of my favourite albums for that reason. I frst heard it when I was on tour with The Horrors before ‘Primary Colours’ came out and it’s been one of my favourite records ever since. I still listen to it a lot now, but I’ve only just remembered where I frst heard it as we’re talking about it! It’s such an expansive record. Some progressive rock records can get a bit lost in themselves, which can be of-putting. But not this one – it’s just really brilliant songwriting in quite an experimental setting. That’s really my favourite kind of music.” 17 MAY 20 14 | Ne w M u s icA l e xpres s
Dave Maclean Django Django on...
43 Public Enemy Fear Of A Black Planet Def Jam, 1990
“I remember going into Our Price with my mum and asking the guy for some Public Enemy. I got ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’ and it didn’t leave my Walkman for months. It felt like my music, speaking for my generation, and it blew my tiny Scottish head.”
53
“It’s the most wrenching record I’ve ever heard in my life. Now let’s talk about why. I had an inordinately painful – for many, many reasons – year and a half, about two years ago. Life was not something I wanted to involve myself in at all, but I had to. Then I discovered ‘Boxer’, so I put it into my car one afternoon. I’m talking about a time in my life when I was wishing my windows were tinted because I was weeping at every stoplight I came to. It was a really rough year. That album
101 A LBUM S TO HE A R B EF ORE YOU DI E
Owen Pallett on...
Kate Nash on...
44 Buffy Sainte-Marie Illuminations Vanguard, 1969
47 MIA Matangi Interscope, 2013
“‘God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot’ is, in my book, the greatest piece of recorded music to date. Razorsharp text by Leonard Cohen, set to surging guitar, composed and sung by Buffy with her signature confrontational, aggressive vibrato, voice cut up and altered further with a Buchla oscillator– this less a song than a comet. The album that follows is top-level experimental folk.”
“It’s so inspiring. The production is incredible and she’s smart and cool and it’s empowering and positive and uplifting. It just made me feel like a new woman when I listened to it. I think I’m in love with her. I saw the video for ‘Bad Girls’ and I was like, ‘This is the coolest fucking video ever’, and then I just started listening to the last album. I love ‘Only 1 U’, ‘Come Walk With Me’, ‘YALA’ – it’s all so smart. It’s like a journey, the whole record.”
54 Siouxsie Sioux on... Tom Meighan Kasabian on...
45 Blackalicious Nia Mo’ Wax, 1999
46 Michael Jackson Thriller Epic, 1982
“What springs to mind is something a lot of people might not be familiar with – the Blackalicious album ‘Nia’. The production, the delivery, the MCs, the lyrics… it’s just phenomenal. My mate’s a DJ and introduced me to a whole world of music. He was like, ‘You’ve gotta get on this.’ Changed everything for me, didn’t it.”
“Nothing’s come near since. It was my childhood, man. It sent me crazy. I’d be in front of the TV for hours trying to mimic him and them dance moves. I don’t think I’d be onstage or singing in a band if it wasn’t for Michael Jackson and that album. He’s a big part of me, and of my childhood. Don’t get me wrong, from what I hear the guy was a fucking monster, but in his day he could shred anyone. Can’t take that away from him.” Ne w M u s icA l e xpres s | 1 7 MAY 20 1 4
48 Bernard Herrmann Psycho OST Unicorn, 1975
“This really unhinged me when I first heard it. Later on, I played it to John McGeoch [late Banshees guitarist] and he said, ‘That’s how I want my guitar to sound.’ I think the film afected me more than anything I’d ever seen. I was so scared. I remember trying to be brave – I was only 11 or 12 – but, secretly, I kept hoping my mum would never buy a shower! Eventually we did and I used to jump out at her, with a breadknife in my hand. We nearly had a few accidents…”
ED MILES
Serge Pizzorno Kasabian on...
49 The Clash The Clash CBS, 1977 “I went to high school in Hackettstown, New Jersey, this farming town where they make M&Ms. Sound Effects Records was its crown jewel. I was getting into punk and I was searching out records and the owner of the store was like, ‘You’re trying to get into punk and you don’t know The Clash?’ So him and his friend bought the record for me. I went back and gave him the money because I was like, ‘This is awesome.’”
Sam Fogarino Interpol on...
50 Casino Versus Japan Whole Numbers Play The Basics Carpark, 2002 “I quickly became infatuated with this record, and it became my personal score to Interpol’s first coach tour. Musically, it transcends any common notion of format in a ‘pop’ sense, while still extending a friendly invite. I believe the intention behind this work was not to alienate, but to avoid convention.”
Quentin Tarantino, director on...
51 Bob Dylan Blood On The Tracks CBS, 1975 “This is my favourite album ever. I spent the end of my teenage years and the start of my twenties listening to old music – rockabilly, stuff like that. I discovered folk music when I was 25, and that led me to Dylan. He blew me away with this. It’s not only a great album, but it’s, like, the great album from his second period. It’s his masterpiece.”
Brandon Flowers The Killers on...
52 The Smiths Louder Than Bombs Rough Trade, 1987
“The Smiths had the biggest impact on me. I was living in a small town in Utah and kids my age were into Korn and Tool, but I was on the other end of the spectrum. I didn’t feel better than them, it was just nice to have something of my own. Years later I actually went with Dave [Keuning, Killers guitarist] to the Salford Lads Club in Manchester and took pictures. We played a gig at Manchester Academy, and across the street is the same church which Morrissey sings about in ‘Vicar In A Tutu’. Even driving by a cemetery, I was thinking, ‘Is that the cemetery he was talking about?’ You can walk down the streets and you can almost hear the songs coming to life. This album’s got my favourite Smiths song ever on it: ‘You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby’. People underestimated how much The Smiths rocked and this was one of my frst rock songs.
It also has my second favourite song, ‘Stretch Out And Wait’, which, for a teenage boy, there was something so sexual about. The Smiths did so much in such a short time. They balanced this sense of humour with seriousness. With Johnny Marr on guitar and Andy Rourke on bass you couldn’t lose. And Morrissey’s voice is the closest thing we had to Elvis.”
Andrew Savage Parquet Courts on...
53 Dead Kennedys Plastic Surgery Disasters Alternative Tentacles, 1982 “I definitely was not the same after hearing this one. I got it because I saw it at a record store when I was 15. I knew the Dead Kennedys were punk and I knew that I wanted to be punk, so I bought it. This album totally shattered my perception of what a punk band, or a rock band for that matter, was capable of. I can recall putting it on for the first time with my friend Mike and flipping through the Winston Smith/Jello Biafra collage book that came with the record and being absolutely floored. From the
first refrain of ‘Terminal Preppie’, I was completely hooked by this strange band. This was back when being a punk band meant little more than being a tried and true freak, and less with aesthetic or bullshit dogma. From start to finish, ‘Plastic Surgery Disasters’ is a solid album. From the bassline of ‘Forest Fire’ to the lead part in ‘Moon Over Marin’, you really can’t fuck with this one.”
17 MAY 2 01 4 | Ne w M u s icA l e xpre s s
55
Brian Fallon The Gaslight Anthem on...
Danger Mouse on...
“The most influential band of the last 30 years. They had such a huge impact on all the hip-hop stuf I used to listen to in the ’90s. Their influence is so important in everything I’ve done, and what I continue to do. It finds its way into so many parts of songs that I love. I’d never heard anything like ‘Showroom Dummies’ at the time.”
Thomas Sanders Teleman on...
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55 Super Furry Animals Fuzzy Logic Creation, 1996
“It’s a really stunning and complete record that’s heavily psychedelic but still grounded by a pop vibe. The themes are weird and wonderful, and Gruf Rhys sings his beguiling lyrics in a voice that could only be his. It’s impeccably recorded but still maintains a real spontaneity and playfulness.”
Frank Turner on...
57 The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site Burning Heart, 2003
“It has the best lyrics that I’ve ever heard in my life. What John K Samson does with words on this record is so far advanced and ahead of all other pop music lyrics that I’ve heard. The only other person I can think of who comes close is Nick Cave – his words are pure poetry. And the music is lovely; it’s a really great country rock record. When I was a kid I was really into a Canadian punk band called Propagandhi and their bass player quit and formed his own band, which was The Weakerthans. I remember people – myself included – being a bit confused initially because he left this fast anarcho-hardcore band and formed a country
band and everybody went, ‘What?!’ Their third record – this one – is arguably my favourite album of all time. There’s a tune on the record called ‘Plea From A Cat Named Virtute’, which is written from the point of view of the singer’s cat, telling him to get his shit together and stop moaning. It’s a beautiful piece of work. There’s a synchronicity between the words and the music – it never sounds forced. It sounds like they were always meant to be that way.”
Katy B on...
58 Skream Skream! Tempa, 2006
Kris Bell The Wytches on...
56 Elliott Smith From A Basement On The Hill Domino, 2004 “A lot of his songs after the first couple of albums seem heavily Beatlesinspired, which is perfect for me. I’ve thought of a million meanings and messages this album delivers but I don’t want try and make sense of it. It’s far too dreamy to want to pull it apart.”
“This album really captures a moment in time, when dubstep was gaining momentum. You can hear the early influences of the genre so well – the best of garage, dub and grime. ‘Midnight Request Line’ was a big tune in the clubs, and I remember being on the dancefloor at Plastic People, hearing it on the loudest soundsystem ever. It felt so fresh to me. I loved the instrumentation, like the flute sounding like a pied piper on ‘Rutten’ over the basslines and mad synths. I also loved the space created in the music. Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s | 1 7 MaY 20 1 4
I was used to dance music feeling a lot faster, but this felt like I had more time to think between the beats. It was influential when I was writing my first album, it made me really want to describe the feeling that the music gave me.”
AMY BRAMMALL, DEAN CHALKLEY, ANDY WILLSHER, TOM SIMPSON, ANDY FORD, JORDAN HUGHES
54 Kraftwerk Trans-Europe Express EMI/Capitol, 1977
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BEF oRE YoU DI E
Honor Titus Cerebral Ballzy on...
59 The Jesus And Mary Chain Psychocandy
Iain Cook Chvrches on...
62 Radiohead In Rainbows XL Recordings, 2007
Blanco Y Negro, 1985
“It’s been a prominent record in my mind from the moment I laid my eyes on the Reid brothers in the catatonic, Warholian cool of the ‘Just Like Honey’ video: a subliminal, punky ‘fuck you’ sentiment drowned in doo-wop melody with static feedback to whirl you around a bit. Shoegaze wouldn’t exist without this efort, as it opened the world’s ears to the subversive and contextual language that is feedback. A couple of riots, leather pants, big lonely haircuts and beautiful associates like Mazzy Star later, we’ve got some anti-legends. Funny how an album 30 years old can still maintain the air of being cutting edge.”
“This is the Radiohead album I had always been waiting to hear. For me, this is a warm and human album – the former is not really one of their hallmarks. They complement the songwriting with gorgeous, expansive textures and tight, organic rhythmic patterns that reveal themselves more with every listen.”
Sohn on...
63 Björk Homogenic
60 The Last Poets The Last Poets Douglas, 1970 “It’s out of control. It’s this Black Power, conga drum music. They were from New York in the early ’70s and this was their most revolutionary record. It’s poetry over percussion; four guys playing conga drums with rapping over the top of it. There’s a track called ‘Niggers Are Scared Of Revolution’, which is insane. He’s going down this whole list of what he says black people
love – jiving and pulling scams and all these things – but the one thing they’re afraid of is revolution. He’s saying, you love doing everything except changing your situation and doing what needs to be done to get out of the ghetto. It’s positive music, but it’s so hardcore. If you don’t understand the background, you might get uncomfortable hearing this guy. It’s supposed to make black people and white people uncomfortable, but it’s all true.”
Jason Williamson Sleaford Mods on...
64 Two Lone Swordsmen From The Double Gone Chapel Warp, 2004 “At the time of this album’s release, I was still trying to be Fred Neil. An old mate threw it at me one day. The dominating basslines, fire alarm, crap vocals and ’80s synths are alienating and really yobbish – cheeky, like the cover suggests. Its realism really got me.”
Jordan Gatesmith Howler on...
61 Scritti Politti Cupid & Psyche 85 Virgin, 1985 At times ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ sounds like the best Michael Jackson record that Michael Jackson had absolutely nothing to do with. On my first listen I thought that I was listening to outtakes from ‘Thriller’ or ‘Bad’, outtakes that slammed some serious dunks. It’s one of the most grievously underrated pop/ post-punk albums of all time. This is for the lovers of sophisti-
“The electronic beats that start the album are like a warm blanket that instantly enveloped me as a listener. Then Björk’s unmistakable voice enters. It ended up shaping my idea of what an album should be, and the sounds on this record started my appreciation for electronic music. I absolutely couldn’t live without it.”
Ben Romans-Hopcraft Childhood on... pop, happy music with extremely dark lyrical undercurrents, and slap bass. If songs like, ‘Absolute’, ‘Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)’ and ‘Perfect Way’ don’t make you want to drop everything and dance maniacally, I would be seriously concerned. Buy it for your boyfriend, buy it for your girlfriend. Get laid forever.” 17 MaY 20 14 | Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s
65 The Vines Highly Evolved Heavenly, 2002 “In many ways the band and this record have been forgotten, which is a shame. It has everything you could want from a guitar band. They contrast soft, sweet tones with huge cascading guitar rifs throughout. The harmonies are so infectious it hurts.”
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One Little Indian, 1997
Anton Newcombe The Brian Jonestown Massacre on...
Patrick Wolf on...
66 PJ Harvey Is This Desire? Island, 1998 “This album really afected me. I started to research my country and my heritage and write from experience. The lyrics are short stories really. ‘The Wind’, that’s real poetry; ‘Angelene’ is a treasure of a song. In the same way I like Björk for her optimism, I appreciate PJ Harvey for daring to be negative.”
Alexis Taylor Hot Chip on...
67 Spacemen 3 Performance Glass, 1988
58
“We used to cover ‘Walking With Jesus’ at school. Joe [Goddard] would tape down notes on the keyboard and I would play the guitar. It was a fairly pivotal moment in terms of keeping us together. If we hadn’t done that, we may not have moved away from the acoustic stuf we were playing before.”
Harry McVeigh White Lies on...
Austin Williams Swim Deep on...
70 Paul McCartney McCartney II Parlophone, 1980
“Our manager showed it to me when we were at this house party in New York. He played me this song called ‘Temporary Secretary’, which is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. It’s really bonkers and the lyrics are really clever. I couldn’t believe it was McCartney. I got the record for my birthday and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. Every time I play it to anyone, everyone asks what it is. Paul and Linda did a video as a band called The Plastic Macs, which was like a homage to the Plastic Ono Band. Apparently
John Lennon got into the album and really liked it and that inspired him to come out of retirement. It’s much better than [Paul’s] frst solo album and I like it more than ‘Ram’. It’s a really good point in his songwriting – every song changes form throughout the album but it still fows really well. It’s one of the biggest inspirations for me right now with writing our second album, and I think it’s going to help us a lot. He played all the instruments on it himself – I really aspire to do that one day. I really like the idea of one person doing everything on a record because you can completely submit yourself to that whole artist and everything they’ve done on that album.”
68 Health Health Lovepump United, 2007
“Some of the songs are unlistenable, but it’s so original. They’re an incredible live band. We were on the NME New Noise tour in 2008 and at the Newcastle show, Health were also playing in the city. Crystal Castles are friends of theirs, so we all went to the show.”
Hayley Williams Paramore on...
69 Failure Fantastic Planet Slash/Warner Bros, 1996 “It’s droney, it’s heavy, the guitar tones are outrageous. It’s the epitome of ’90s alternative rock. I like them mostly because [Ken Andrews] sounds like he doesn’t care, he’s just singing things he’s passionate about.”
Joey Santiago Pixies on...
71 Suicide Suicide Red Star, 1977 “As far as I know it’s maybe the pioneer of that kind of electronic trance. It’s got a good modern edge – it’s not cluttered, it’s basically a synthesizer and a drum machine. The vocals have got a ’50s vibe because of the echo. I like the bands they inspired, too, like Spacemen 3 and even Bruce Springsteen. There’s this one song, ‘Frankie Teardrop’, that reminds me of The Doors’ ‘Riders On The Storm’. ‘Suicide’ reminds you that you’ve got to go back to the basics – nothing has to be that complicated, the less information the better. I think that’s what we’ve got to get back to. The kids are listening to these DJs press a play button and they raise their hands and they go, ‘Yay! I can press fucking play!’ They should listen to this and get more of the art of it. There’s a lot more emotion with this.” Ne w m u sical e xpres s | 17 m ay 2 0 14
1 01 AL B UMS TO HE A R BEF ORE YOU DI E
Jarvis Cocker Pulp on...
72 Hugo Montenegro Music From The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
Blaine Harrison Mystery Jets on...
76 Neil Young On The Beach
RCA Victor, 1968 Reprise, 1974
“This was Neil Young’s long-awaited studio follow-up to ‘Harvest’, and found him uncomfortable with his new-found fame. Although he had spent the previous two years touring arenas of the back of the commercial success of ‘Harvest’, by 1974 he had mostly shunned performing his crowd-pleasing songs in favour of new, darker material, devoid of the pure melodies beloved of his droves of soft-rock loving followers. Listening to the record, I feel the fame he knew as a young man was proving to be a shallow experience, as though walls were being built up around him that he realised he had to rip down before he became totally incarcerated.”
Noel Gallagher on...
74 Neil Young And Crazy Horse Weld Reprise, 1991 “Because he’s a stubborn old goat and he won’t put out a proper Greatest Hits, the only albums with all the good songs on are the live ones. What makes me laugh about this album is that my manager, Marcus Russell, and the guy who was MD of Creation, Tim Abbott, they call it ‘The Air Guitar Workout Album’. I had them round my flat one night and it was like watching two old men doing the Jane Fonda Workout. They were on the table going, ‘Dow-now, dow-now’ – it was like fucking Beavis And Butt-head, man. Neil Young And Crazy Horse are the greatest live outfit in the business at the moment. Apart from when I played with Crazy Horse, of course.”
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“It reminds me of getting ready to go to school, and my mum always used to have Terry Wogan on the radio. It was quite haunting and mysterious to me. I was four or five at that time and it reminds me of pain because mum used to brush me and my sister’s hair before we went to school. If you didn’t keep still, she’d hit you on the head with a hairbrush. They were plastic, so often broke. I had a number of hairbrushes broken over my head to the sound of this record.”
DAVID eDWARDS, Tom oxLeY, DAN DeNNISoN, JoRDAN HUGHeS, eD mILeS, ARPAD HoRVATH, Tom mARTIN
Eoin Loveless Drenge on...
Jordan Hutchinson The Amazing Snakeheads on...
75 Girls Album
Fantasy Trashcan/Turnstile, 2009
73 Snoop Doggy Dogg Doggystyle Death Row, 1993
“Hip-hop was a big part of growing up for me in New Zealand. My school was pretty small and we listened to a bunch of music but hip-hop was the dominant genre. ‘Doggystyle’ came out in 1993 and I remember seeing Snoop’s ‘Dog’ logo etched into desks at school and wondering what the hell it was – and what was that canine smoking? It wasn’t till a wee bit later that I heard it banging out of some stereo and asked who it was. It soundtracked parties, make-out sessions, fights all those thrilling moments of growing up.”
“In the book and flm Submarine, the main character’s dad makes a cassette tape for his son to listen to after fnding out about his frst girlfriend. Side A is the soundtrack to the joys of young love – happy and carefree tunes, all efortless and major key. Side B is the morning after – Berocca for the inevitable hangover. While it’s not a postbreakup album, Girls’ ‘Album’ is essentially Side B, fying you to San Francisco to show you how life is out of the shade. Everybody can relate to these songs. But instead of being open-ended and allowing the listener to fnd their own meaning in the song, Christopher Owens goes straight to the point, writing frankly and viscerally rather than hiding behind long words and metaphors. And yeah, some lyrics – and sometimes even the backing – might seem a bit borrowed and simple, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s like listening to early 17 may 2 01 4 | Ne w m u s ica l e xpre s s
Beatles songs after hearing their R&B covers – everything is in plain sight, illustrating those situations everyone’s been in before. That’s not to say it’s unoriginal though, and the production is entirely captivating, elevating each musical idea to a sensation that lingers long after it’s all over.”
Matt Korvette Pissed Jeans on...
79 X X-Aspirations X Records, 1980
“‘X-Aspirations’ [by the Australian X, not the LA group of the same name] sums up everything great about rock music. It’s equal parts hard-rock scumbaggery and punk-rock pessimism, and every track is a hit. Pissed Jeans has ripped of all we could from this record, and I recommend that any other hopeful rock band do the same. If there was ever a reason to believe in the holiness of the rock power trio, it’s ‘X-Aspirations’.”
Ron Howard director on... Tim Burgess on...
80 Cat Stevens Teaser And The Firecat Island, 1971
77 Durutti Column LC Factory, 1981
The whole album has a beautiful simplicity, like sunshine glistening on water – songs about friends: ‘Sketch For Dawn’, ‘Detail For Paul’, ‘Portrait for Frazier’, ‘Jacqueline’. ‘The Missing Boy’ is about Ian Curtis, Vini’s friend who had died the year before. The music was so much more subtle than everything I was listening to at the time – the opposite of being punched in the head by clumsy rock music. I found out recently that the title stands for lotta continua, or continuous struggle – given that Vini recently sufered a series of strokes which threatened his ability to continue playing guitar, it adds a sense of sadness to the beauty.”
“Cat Stevens was on a real run of form around this time. The stories in the songs are very moving and unforgettable, and I still listen to this record a lot. ‘The Wind’, ‘Moonshadow’, ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘Peace Train’ are all on here, and I completely wore out the first copy I got of this record. That was back in the days when you could wear out a record, which really ages me, I know.”
Duncan Wallis and Robin Richards Dutch Uncles on... James Dean Bradfield Manic Street Preachers on...
78 Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction Geffen, 1987 “By this time, I’d gone past the point of the naivety of punk and began to see through the iconoclastic thing of trying to destroy. I didn’t want us to have that horrible anti-star ethic that ‘anyone can do it’. I wanted us to keep the basic premise of punk, but be quite snotty too. For me, Axl Rose and Slash replicated the Jagger/Richards axis. Slash was such a big, lumbering bloke but really gentle too – millions of contradictions, but everyone just
thought he was a twat in a top hat. This was an incredibly romantic time for me. Nicky and Richey were still in university, and when my parents were out at work, I’d just shut the curtains and learn this whole album on guitar. ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ has become so strongly associated with Slash, and I wanted to create something that people would immediately identify with my guitar. That was probably the biggest motivation for ‘Motorcycle Emptiness’. Pretty egotistical, I suppose.”
Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s | 1 7 May 20 1 4
81 XTC Skylarking Virgin, 1986 “It’s a close call between this and ‘Drums And Wires’ for our favourite XTC efort, but this swings it for the Todd Rundgren factor [he produced it]. It was XTC’s ninth album, and their third since becoming a full-time studio band following lead singer Andy Partridge’s breakdown. It’s a very summery album, and draws on XTC’s West Country roots. Lyrically it opens with young love and its humble beginnings and develops towards marriage, followed by the struggles and paranoia of a mid-life crisis. Delve into one of the best bands in alt.pop history.”
LAuRA PALMER, DAVID EDWARDS, AnDy FORD, DAn KEnDAL
60
“It was the first Durutti Column album I listened to all the way though. I was aware of them as they were on Factory – home of my favourite band, New Order. The album opens with Bruce Mitchell’s drumming: he was working with the band for the first time at the start of a stint of over 30 years alongside mainstay Vini Reilly – a partnership that continues to this day. There was something so frail and delicate about the music, almost as delicate as Vini looked in photographs.
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BE F oR E YoU D IE
Kurt Vile on... Conor Oberst on...
82 Steely Dan Katy Lied ABC, 1975 “When you’re a record nerd, you consume everything to the extent that what’s left is the stuf you didn’t like before. That’s a good analogy for Steely Dan. First you consume all this classic rock that’s sort of hip, or not. Then there’s Steely Dan. People say they’re too smooth, but if you really listen, you realise Steely Dan are badass as shit. I’m always about that anyway, accepting the cheesy moments for the really good moments. Then you take that further
85 Simon Joyner Songs For The New Year Sing, Eunuchs!, 1997 and listen to the records you used to hate most. Man, I hated ‘Katy Lied’ for so long. Then you listen deeper and it changes. The second song is called ‘Bad Sneakers’. It’s so ridiculous the first time you hear it, but then you hear all the detail. Their sense of humour is hilarious, the lyrics are great, and they play circles around everybody.”
“I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes some nice, beautiful poetry with their folk music. Simon is one of the reasons I started writing songs. He’s made a lot of great albums, but there’s something about ‘Songs For The New Year’ – I was a teenager when it came out and I associate it with a time in my life when I was getting into music and songwriting, so it has a special meaning for me.”
William Doyle East India Youth on...
Kate Tempest on...
83 Bill Withers Live At Carnegie Hall
“I remember being taken aback by the lyrics, the unashamedly English voice and the song’s balancing act of comedy and pathos. The rest of the album follows suit, every song being a mixture of quirkiness, sincerity, playfulness and genuine emotion. We used to play this album in the van on tour all the time.”
Sussex/A&M, 1973
“The songs he writes have this deep passion and sincerity, but then you hear him between the songs and he’s just chilling. He’s so witty. This album is a whole, so it’s dificult to pick out any tracks, although ‘Grandma’s Hands’ is lovely. The thing about it is that I listen to lots of lyrical music, and Bill Withers’ lyrics have no bullshit. It’s heart-wrenching stuf, but it’s clear.
For something to be poetic doesn’t mean it has to be full of stupid words. He expresses this clear and present truth. There’s a song called ‘Better Of Dead’ where he’s talking about having a drinking problem and she’s taken the kids. He says: “She’s better of without me and I’m better of dead”. It ends with a gunshot! Oh my God!”
Matt Hayward Band Of Skulls on...
84 Jimi Hendrix Electric Ladyland Track, 1968 “That’s when my mind got blown for the first time. I’d never heard guitar playing like that. Coupled with the songwriting, it was music being played in a way I’d never heard before. Russell [Marsden, Band Of Skulls’ guitarist] showed me it when we were very young kids and just starting to play music together. We were jamming and we’d sit there for hours and hours doing these bluesy things, not speaking but just playing. I think that really moulded what we ended up doing now.” 17 May 20 14 | Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s
Bridget Battle Tweens on...
87 Lana Del Rey Born To Die Polydor/Interscope, 2012 “The perfect contemporary pop record. The postmodern themes in songs like ‘Diet Mountain Dew’ and ‘Video Games’, though subtle, encapsulate the essence of youth in this tasteful and timeless way. The topic of most of her songs are about strange or taboo relationships with men of all ages.”
Isaac Holman Slaves on...
88 Jamie T Panic Prevention Virgin, 2007 “This album blew my mind. A scrufy punk-style kid from London who can’t stereotypically ‘sing’ but produced the catchiest singalong anthems gave me massive inspiration. It showed me another way to approach music: the gritty, straightup sentiment of punk, which I adored, delivered behind melody and rhythm.”
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86 The European In A Very Real Sense Now Stolen, 2010
Charlie Boyer Charlie Boyer And The Voyeurs on...
89 Charlotte Gainsbourg Charlotte For Ever Phonogram, 1986 “She was 15 when she made her debut. It’s not only a strange and fascinating milestone for her, but for her father as well. This record is so pop that very few people, let alone punk rockers, can listen to it for more than one song without losing their mind. The mixture of genre and production values is very near and dear to my heart: clean guitar recorded direct without amps, verses in
French with choruses in English, a sax or keyboard solo on every track. The last track, ‘Lemon Incest’, is pure pop genius, with one of the coolest music videos of all time: Serge and Charlotte in a suggestive tableau, singing back and forth to each other on a spinning bed, really proving that they don’t give a shit about what anyone thinks about them. Bravery like this is seldom found in pop stars. A must for the truly dedicated music adventurer.”
Aaron Hemphill Liars on...
90 Germs (GI) Slash, 1979 “I will always root for the underdog. Germs could hardly book a gig. They were banned from most clubs for their stage antics and the violent reactions the crowds had to their shows. Darby (Crash, singer) would cover himself in peanut butter or liquorice, throw bags of flour into the audience, anything to mask the fact they couldn’t play. They were running around the same scene as X, Black Flag and Circle Jerks – all much more polished bands. So away these scrufy kids go to record their first album, produced by Joan Jett of all people. I’m not sure what their peers were expecting, but I can guess it wasn’t what was captured on ‘(GI)’. After one listen I stopped taking guitar lessons and began to think I could do what Germs were doing.”
Chris Talbot Wild Beasts on...
91 Talk Talk Spirit Of Eden
“I like how claustrophobic and pompous it is. I like to imagine the recording studio – what clothes they were wearing and what kind of foul and paranoid mood they were in. Because the instruments are played with the soulless proficiency of some beardy clock-watchers (in a good way), it seems to enhance what Lou Reed is singing about. ‘Oh, Jim’ is probably my favourite track on the album, especially the end section with the Buddy Holly-ish vocals.”
Nathan Day Darlia on...
93 Oasis Definitely Maybe Creation, 1994 “It doesn’t fuck about. It exudes such natural, unapologetic brilliance. Noel is the master puppeteer with a tiger on a lead. My appreciation for this album does not necessarily extend to what it is, but what it isn’t. It’s not mindless noise trying to be rock’n’roll by sounding shit on purpose and compromising its own sound; it is what it is. And it’s a diamond.”
KC Big Deal on...
94 Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dream Hut, 1993 “The people I love and fight with the most love ‘Siamese Dream’. The first sound you hear – Jimmy Chamberlain’s drum roll at the start of ‘Cherub Rock’ – it’s as if the band know they are about to join the rock’n’roll circus. ‘Who wants honey? As long as there’s some money’. Calling out heartless hipster culture in 1993? A strong opening statement.”
Jennifer Herrema Royal Trux on...
Parlophone, 1988
“Ditching the synths and the electronics and embracing everything organic, this truly was a bold left turn for a band who were Top 10 chart fodder. The record is made up of six songs, but because of the way the developments segue into one another and how themes get revisited, it feels more like a series of movements, not unlike the way
92 Lou Reed Berlin RCA, 1973
95 ESG Come Away With ESG 99, 1983 classical music is structured. Moments of noodling improv flow into something more calculated yet still exquisite. Vocal samples suck into heavily afected organs and vice versa, while Mark Hollis’ voice creaks and quivers its way to delivering some of the most intimate vocal leads ever put to tape. A creative benchmark.” Ne w M u sical e xpres s | 17 M ay 2 0 14
“So many things have been influenced by ESG. They later made an EP called ‘Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills’ because so many people, from Kool Moe Dee to Wu-Tang, were sampling them, but they weren’t making any money! I love drums, I love rhythm and lyrical simplicity. It’s not just any one thing – it’s not just disco, not just funk, not just no-wave, it’s its own thing.”
CAT STEVENS, AARON FARLEY, ANDY WILLSHER, JENN FIVE, DAVID EDWARDS
Carson Cox Merchandise on...
1 01 AL B UMS to HE A R BEF oRE YoU DI E
Dom Ganderton Superfood on...
99 Dandelion Gum Black Moth Super Rainbow
Paul Smith Maximo Park on...
96 Life Without Buildings Any Other City
Graveface, 2007
“When I listen to this album, I know that I am truly alive. My chest swells with excitement, my pulse quickens and my mind is fooded with diferent emotions. With a basic rock’n’roll setup of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, this album has a pleasing simplicity – light-heartedness coupled with direct and driving melodies. The lightning rod at its centre is Sue Tompkins, whose voice and words are a continual stimulant throughout this album, fitting this way and that, discovering profundity in the commonplace, distorting meaning via repetition. When I frst heard the band I was unsure whether I liked the constant, disorienting speak-singing, but I slowly realised how unique it was and how personal and expressive Tompkins was being. In the end, I couldn’t stop listening to it and
I almost wore out my cassette copy on my daily walk into university – it was, and it remains, my companion. Perhaps because this album came out around the last millennium, before fashion’s pendulum had swung back in the direction of ‘guitars’, it was overlooked by the press and the public. Thankfully, it’s recently been reissued for Record Store Day, allowing a new generation to enjoy the music of these four art-school graduates who only made this one record before going their separate ways with no regrets. How could there be regrets after they created this beautiful, timeless document of lives being lived?”
Johnny Marr on...
Brody Dalle on...
97 Iggy And The Stooges Raw Power
98 Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf Interscope, 2002
Columbia, 1973
“I got it when I was 15 and immediately related to it. I was living on a housing estate in Manchester where it seemed like winter lasted forever. But I didn’t mind it being dark when the soundtrack to those days was so beautiful and mysterious. There are plenty of people who think the first Stooges album is the best, or maybe ‘Fun House’. But they’re wrong. ‘Raw Power’ is far superior, not least because it’s got James Williamson on it, who’s my favourite guitar player ever. It’s more lyrical and musically innovative than their other records but without sacrificing any of that purity or primal excitement. I interpreted the lyrics as Iggy’s personal street poetry. The entire atmosphere of ‘Raw Power’ was what I was drawing on for ‘The Queen Is Dead’ – that beautiful gloom.”
“I was on the train for four hours the other day, missing my husband [Josh Homme], so I started listening to his records. And ‘Songs For The Deaf’ is honestly one of the best rock records ever written. It is mind-blowingly good. You could put it up against anyone else’s record and it would blow it away. I don’t know how they made it sound like that. It’s really impressive and there are so many good solos. People are going to keep discovering that record. It’s not going to go away.” 17 May 2 01 4 | Ne w M u sica l e xpres s
Marika Hackman on...
100 Joni Mitchell Blue Reprise, 1971 “I love her music but I’m not a freaky fan, I couldn’t name all of her songs or anything. I thought she was so good that it put me of writing songs. My favourite song from this album would ‘A Case Of You’ or ‘Little Green’. When you look at lyrics that intensely, every time you listen to it you’re trying to work it out and form opinions.”
Mon-Chan Bo Ningen on...
101 Clara Rockmore The Art Of The Theremin Delos International, 1977
“In Japanese Buddhism, death is not the end of life but just a turning point. Life and death are a counterpart to each other. We keep being threatened by the existence of death; conversely, we keep aiming for future. This album is a requiem for the people who live through the transmigration of the soul to life on the planet, before the soul leaves the body.”
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Tugboat, 2001
“Vocoders generally have a rough time, but if you want to listen to it done well, you need to hear this album. Melodic, spacey wonderment from a band I don’t really know a lot about other than they know how to handle synths. ‘Sun Lips’ uses one of the coolest sounds you can dial up on a keyboard, a Mellotron on flute setting. ‘Forever Heavy’ has a pulse that you just can’t deny. It’s been on repeat since I stumbled upon it and it’s already one of my favourite albums ever. Listen to it immediately.”
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CloWnInG aRoUnd
It’s a jungle out there Gruf Rhys ponders why we’re all here and looks back at his politicised Welsh upbringing
The meaning of life is on NME’s Ted Kessler mind as he hangs out with Super Furry Animals in a pub opposite Pentonville prison in north London. The frst time frontman Gruf Rhys questioned his existence, aged seven, he concluded that life was a conspiracy sponsored by reggae bands. “But your opinion changes as you grow older,” he says. “About three years ago I thought the meaning of life was a live-in companion, a 10-speed mountain bike and a good stereo system. Since then it’s been a bit erratic.” Later, they touch on Gruf’s childhood in the Welsh-speaking quarry town of Bethesda, which has a history of left-wing activism. “The environment I grew up in was quite politicised,” he says. “Because of the language, everything gets politicised.” This included music, and Gruf says it was only OK to listen to The Velvet Underground because of John Cale, who’s Welsh. He adds: “To an extent English music was frowned upon where I came from. That’s what attracted me to it.”
Johnny Cigarettes spends time with Insane Clown Posse in Detroit, where band member Violent J is explaining their philosophy. “I’m indestructible until all our six prophecies have been revealed,” he says. “I could fall asleep on a train track and the train would hit me and fly of the track and I wouldn’t even wake up. We’re prophets of the Dark Carnival. The whole fuckin’ world is in my hand and I could squeeze it like a tomato if I want.”
RevIeWed thIS WeeK Radiohead – Airbag/How Am I Driving? “They were pop’s wise owls… and now this odd little beast is yet more power to Radiohead’s impressively angular collective elbow.” ■ SImoN WILLIamS
alSo In thIS ISSUe
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►Frank Skinner, David Baddiel
and Ian Broudie chat about the upcoming World Cup in France. “Gazza’s the man,” says Broudie. Skinner adds: “He’s a yob and a visionary. It sums up the essence of football.” ►Snoop Dogg is caught with an ounce of weed in his pocket during the filming of Def Comedy Jam in La. The police nicked him when he got in a fight and ran to them for protection. ►menswear “plod disastrously through the motions in a deserted student union bar” at a King’s College, London show.
17 may 2 01 4 | Ne w m u sica l e xpres s
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love and hate Director Nick Broomfield speaks about his documentary, Kurt & Courtney, which has made it to cinemas despite Courtney Love’s attempts to halt its production. Love says that the movie portrays her in a negative light as it explores the couple’s relationship. Had she co-operated, Broomfield claims, the film would have turned out diferently: “She’s a person that people have strong feelings about, and I guess I was hoping that I would find that she is actually alright under it all.”
EDITOR Mike Williams EDITOR’S PA Karen Walter (ext 6864) ART DIRECTOR Mark Neil (ext 6885) EDITOR, NME.COM Greg Cochrane (ext 6892)
QUIZ NME CROSSWORD
■ Compiled by
TREVOR HUNGERFORD
Win £50 Worth of seetickets vouchers 1
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2 Which recently reunited band’s 1991 debut album is called ‘Just For A Day’?
7 steve shelley is the drummer in which legendary Us indie band?
3 Gary numan’s first UK number one, ‘are “Friends” electric?’, was credited to his band. What were they called?
8 Who had a UK Number One album in 1999 with ‘Equally Cursed And Blessed’?
4 Whose 2008 Best Of compilation was called ‘Decade In The Sun’?
9 What were the names of the two albums Bruce springsteen released on the same day in 1992?
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with a Scottishborn singer to headline T In The Park’s Main Stage – and in which year?
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1 Which current london venue was previously known as the Town & Country Club?
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■ Compiled by ALAN WOODHOUSE (answers on page 67)
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5 Who did morrissey duet with on the 1994 hit single ‘interlude’?
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10 Thom Yorke (top) sings guest vocals on three tracks on which Mercury Prizewinning album?
11 When The jesus and mary Chain reformed to play Coachella in 2007, which Hollywood actress guested with them? 12 Which Beatles song did Paul McCartney play at Live Aid in 1985? 13 Which song title links robbie Williams, paolo nutini and ash? 14 True or false? Pointless TV host Richard Osman’s brother is Suede bassist Mat Osman. 15 Which Us alt. country band have released an album called ‘Thriller’?
CLUES ACROSS 1 Unwanted fiddle in accompaniment to Brody dalle (4-4-4-2) 8 an intense nervous excitement as The Black Keys release a single (5) 9 legendary ’60s band who went ‘over Under sideways down’ (9) 11 The organ’s terrible on this michael jackson number (5-4) 13 They belong to a ‘strangeland’ (5) 15 at the end of the day, it’s hard to see how Gorky’s Zygotic mynci perform this (4-5) 17 never get changed for Half moon run (5) 18 jeff _____, maker of the ‘musical Version of The War of The Worlds’ (5) 19 ‘____ The Beatles’ was the band’s second album (4) 21 renowned Us record label whose artists included muddy Waters, Chuck Berry and Howlin’ Wolf (5) 22+24D “Well don’t you know
that’s the sound of the men workin’ on the _____ “, sam Cooke (5-4) 23 nevertheless it’s either a single by Ceelo Green or a ’70s album by Family (6) 24 sonic youth in a bit of a sticky mess (3) 25 aim to return with a rapper (1-1-1) 26 ‘Who Killed _____?’, enquiry by sex pistols and Tenpole Tudor (5) 27 Their hits include ‘labelled With love’ and ‘Cool For Cats’ (7) 28 Constantly badger three horses with Cabaret Voltaire (3-3-3)
CLUES DOWN 1 not the same group of students for pulp (9-5) 2 We’ll forever be remembered by The noisettes (5-6-3) 3 Get bogged down with founder member of The Beloved (5) 4 don’t just give a parting wave to Beck (3-7)
5 a very testing time after three terms of education for Kaiser Chiefs (3) 6 don’t bike around with the latest swans album (2-2-4) 7 “_____, you’ve got to see her/Go insane and out of your mind”, 1999 (5) 10 seventies glam-rockers who did ‘The Ballroom Blitz’ (5) 12 (see 20 down) 14 seven laws broken by Kanye West making this recording (3-6) 16 “Well, I thought my pickin’ would set ’em on fire, but nobody wanted to hire a ______ ___”, elvis presley (6-3) 20+12D “Creatures kissing in the rain, shapeless in the dark again, in the _______ ______”, The Cure (7-6) 22 limp Bizkit’s album ‘Gold _____’ completed by low-down creature (5) 24 (see 22 across) 25 ‘are We not ___? We are devo’ (3)
ThE NME COvER ThaT I gONE aND DONE ■ by CHRiS SimpSONS ARTiST
APRIL 12 ANSWERS ACROSS 1 Greens and Blues, 8 nightmares, 10 outside, 11 Burn, 13+26d it’s a Hit, 14 Wiggle it, 17 xanman, 18 alfie, 21 ice, 22 Tender, 23 sun, 24+27d ed lay, 26 Hal, 28 Vapors, 31 recess DOWN 1+9a Gang of Four, 2 eighth Wonder, 3+19d nothing lasts Forever, 4 arabella, 6+30a Unfinished sympathy, 7 soul, 12+16a+5d Half man Half Biscuit, 15 exciters, 20 anna, 23 score, 25 pop, 29 sos
normal nMe terms and conditions apply, available at nMe.coM/terms. cut out the crossword and send it, along with your name, address and email, marking the envelope with the issue date, before tuesday, May 27, 2014, to: crossword, nMe, Blue fin Building, 110 southwark street, London se1 0su. Winners will be notified via email.
Ne w M u s ica l e xpres s | 17 May 20 1 4
ellis parinder, joey malone, rex
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6 Who were the last band
NEXT WEEK
arctic M o n k e ys the road to Finsbury Park: the ultimate preview Alex, Matt, Jamie and Nick prepare for the biggest weekend of their lives
ALSO IN NEXT WEEK’S ISSUE INTERVIEWS Gruff Rhys Tune-Yards Pulled Apart By Horses Royal Blood Tame Impala Miles Kane
ALBUM REVIEWS Sharon Van Etten Wolf Alice Trash Talk Michael Jackson Robyn & Röyksopp
CAUGHT LIVE Peace Janelle Monáe Charli XCX Future Islands
On sale Wednesday, May 21
QUIZ ANSWERS 1. The Forum 2. Slowdive 3. Tubeway Army 4. Stereophonics 5. Siouxsie Sioux 6. Texas, 2001 7. Sonic Youth 8. Catatonia 9. ‘Human Touch’ and ‘Lucky Town’ 10. PJ Harvey’s ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea’ 11. Scarlett Johansson 12. ‘Let It Be’ 13. ‘Candy’ 14. True 15. Lambchop (in 1997)
zACkerY mICHAeL
Courtney Love
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